This Is Where We Draw the Line
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No, the limits had not yet been reached. Even though this red line would not move any further. But in 1966, the area of Leiden would expand further to the east and west (fig. 1). During almost a century of debates about Leiden’s expansion, there was a lot of uproar among the residents and the city councils.
Oegstgeest had already lost land after the first annexation. They were definitely not planning to let this happen again, but Leiden kept growing and thought of different ways to accomplish the expansion of the city. Because of the Woningwet (Housing Law) of 1901, Leiden was obligated to document the future of the city in an expansion plan, which was also sent to the city council of Oegstgeest.
This meant that the situation between both cities became tense again, and that drove Oegstgeest to search for help from higher up. Initially, various letters were sent to the province of Zuid-Holland in which Oegstgeest argued that the annexation violated their democratic rights. According to the city of Oegstgeest, annexation was only an option if it were to benefit both parties and the public interest. As this was not the case, Oegstgeest argued that annexation was not justified. As a last resort, the city council even tried to send a letter to parliament (fig. 2). In the end, an intermediate solution was found and the border did not extend as far into the territory of Oegstgeest as Leiden wished.
The city council of Leiden was certainly ready to voice countering opinions (fig. 3), and so did the inhabitants of the city. The matter of annexation was on the minds of people. In the Leidsch Dagblad for example, a letter written by someone living in Leiden was published, saying that at the end of the day, everyone was from Zuid-Holland. In opposition, someone wrote that the annexation would be a big disaster, a disruption of order and an act of power over law (fig. 4). That letter remained unpublished.
One resident on the Morsweg, the factory owner L. E. Nieuwenhuizen, even used war expressions to strengthen his opinions about the 1896 annexations: he felt like the Boers in the South-African Transvaal, who fought against British annexations (fig. 5). This was not at all far-fetched, seeing that people in the Netherlands around 1900 had sympathies for the Boers. Ironically enough, Nieuwenhuizen could not have known that after the first annexation, streets added to the neighborhood would be named after some Boer Heroes, like Kruger, Joubert and Cronjé!
In 1966, the last annexation took place, which took territory of Oegstgeest that is now known as the Hoge Mors, and added it to Leiden. In the Transvaal neighborhood, this caused turmoil again: the last part of the Morsweg, then called Hoge Morsweg, was renamed Morsweg as well, and all the house numbers had to be changed, otherwise Leiden would have two streets with the same name. This had consequences that lasted for a long time: the mail was delivered incorrectly for years thereafter! A piece by Nic Schrama in the religious and political newspaper De Tijd says: For the lovely village a loss of 441 hectares and 1375 inhabitants. Not pleasant for Oegstgeest, but indeed for Leiden and Rijnsburg, who will have a little more breathing room.