Netherlands warns against misuse of its flag

On 12 March 1915 the Dutch Ministry of Marine published a warning to foreign shipowners in the official “Staatscourant”. Foreign merchant ships in waters under the jurisdiction of the Netherlands that passed themselves off as Dutch ships were to be detained. The authorities announced that they would prevent them from leaving Dutch ports and from navigating Dutch waters.

False colours

The warning listed several ways of impersonating Dutch shipping. These included hoisting the Dutch ensign, using the international signal letters belonging to a Dutch ship, and painting on the hull, funnels or masts names, colours and other marks that would suggest Dutch nationality or a connection with a Dutch shipowner. The press reported that such cases had occurred many times, and that the names of Dutch vessels or the words “Rotterdam” or “Amsterdam” had been painted on the hulls of some ships.

The problem had been growing since the end of January, when the Admiralty advised British ships to fly the flags of neutral states in the waters around the British Isles. A few days later the Lusitania entered Liverpool under the flag of the United States, and the Foreign Office held such a stratagem to be a legitimate ruse of war. The Germans cited these practices when they announced that neutral ships too would not be safe in the war zone. For the Dutch, whose ships constantly sailed across the North Sea and the English Channel, this was a very serious threat: if a German commander could not trust the flag, a genuine Dutch ship could fall victim. According to the press of the time, the Dutch government had already presented London with its objections to the British position on the use of neutral flags.

Only in its own waters

The government in The Hague could do nothing about foreign ships sailing under its flag on the high seas. It could, however, enforce the law in its own waters. Dutch law punished the impersonation of the Dutch flag, and according to the press, ships using Dutch colours had even entered Dutch waters and rivers. The warning meant that such vessels would not leave Dutch ports. Part of the Dutch press welcomed it. The Amsterdam daily “De Standaard” wrote that the cabinet had at last “intervened decisively”. It conceded that hoisting a neutral flag at the moment of pursuit was an old ruse of war, but here it was a matter of falsifying the flag openly, recommended and even ordered by the government of another state.

In this way the Netherlands sought to show both sides that it was guarding its neutrality. A few days later, however, it was to face a more serious problem: the retaliatory measures of Britain and France, which struck at Dutch trade with Germany.