Britain's Dutch policy, 1914-1918; the view from British archives
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Original 1969 dissertation
Errata file
Date
1969
DOI
Authors
Watson, Charles Albert
Version
OA Version
Citation
Abstract
In wartime Great Britain, diplomacy's main efforts were directed
toward bringing the war to a successful conclusion, The Foreign Office
played a role secondary to that of the Admiralty and the War Office;
diplomatic success, in many ways, depended on success in battle,
The geographical position of the Netherlands made it one of the
key countries in western Europe, located between the greatest land
power on the continent and the greatest maritime power in the world,
the Dutch had to find the correct balance in international diplomacy
in order to maintain both their independence and their neutrality.
This was a difficult task because the Netherlands depended on commerce
for its wealth and even its very existence, The problem for the
British Foreign Office was how to carry on the war against Germany and
German trade, much of which was transshipped through the Netherlands,
without ruining the Dutch economy or pushing the Dutch people into the
arms of Germany.
In the early days of August 1914, Sir Edward Grey, the British
Foreign Secretary, momentarily tried to convince the Dutch that they
should enter the war, He made an offer of 'common action' but within
a matter of hours withdrew it, probably because he saw that the British
armed forces would not be able to protect the Dutch against a German
invasion, He and his successor, Arthur J, Balfour, maintained for the
rest of the war that Great Britain should not encourage the Dutch to [TRUNCATED]
Description
Ph.D.--Boston University.
License
Copyright by CHARLES ALBERT WATSON 1969. This work is being made available in OpenBU by permission of its author, and is available for research purposes only. All rights are reserved to the author.