During the heyday of the modern Dutch Empire, colonial affairs could be vigorously debated in the Dutch press on one day, and be virtually forgotten the day after. It is this fundamental ambiguity in the position of the Dutch Empire in the life and society in the metropole that is the subject of this study. This ambiguity had much to do with the fact that the metropole was (and is) as often seen as part of the empire as it is not. Sometimes the connection between metropole and colony was all too obvious, for instance, when Dutch audiences read reports in their newspapers about the colonial wars that were waged in their name and when colonial military veterans were celebrated at home. At other times, a lack of enthusiasm ‘from below’ led various commentators to complain about the public's ‘lukewarm indifference’ to empire. Yet, the ambiguity when it comes to the perceived role of empire in Dutch society is not just a story of presences and absences, but also one of contradictions within single moments. The commentators who complained about imperial indifference are a case in point: they sought attention for colonial affairs in newspapers and other periodicals, and clearly felt a natural entitlement to take up that space, while at the same time their laments about a lack of attention to colonial affairs was based on the premise that it was, to their regret, not a natural thing to devote that much attention to such matters.