On September 4, 1925, Queen Wilhelmina issued a call to all discharged and laid-off veterans, asking them to reenlist in the military to participate in the suppression of the indigenous rebellion in the Dutch East Indies.
Queen Wilhelmina specifically promised that the military would not be arbitrarily disbanded after the suppression and that these veterans would enjoy their previous salaries upon returning to service.
For those retired and laid-off veterans, this counted as good news—after all, in the Netherlands affected by an unemployment surge, finding a high-paying and stable job was no easy task.
Soldiering was a profession with relatively stable wages in the Netherlands, and with the personal promise from Queen Wilhelmina, indeed, quite a few veterans reenlisted, sparking a surge in military recruitment.
