A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium Part 19

[Ill.u.s.tration: Outside view of the Fort of Waehlem after bombardment by big German guns]

General von Luttwitz has come out with another Proclamation, forbidding the sale of foreign newspapers in Belgium:

I remind the population of Brussels and its suburbs that it is strictly forbidden to sell or distribute newspapers that are not expressly authorised by the German Military Government. Any infraction of this prohibition will entail the immediate arrest of the vendors, as well as long periods of imprisonment.

The German Military Governor, BARON VON LuTTWITZ, _General._.

My _laisser-pa.s.ser_ has not come, and there is no telling when we shall get away. The Germans swear it was sent last night.

_On board S.S. "Oranje Na.s.sau" off Flushing, Sept. 30, 1914._--We got away on Sunday morning about eleven o'clock, after many calls at headquarters and a mild row about the _laisser-pa.s.ser_ that had not been sent. It was finally discovered that some boneheaded clerk had sent it by mail--a matter of three days! It was fished out of the military post office, and we got away in a few minutes.

We were in the big car, heavily laden--two trunks, several valises and a mail pouch on top--my two pa.s.sengers inside with their small stuff, the chauffeur and I in front.

We made quick time out through Tervueren and down to Namur, hearing the heavy booming of cannon all the time away to the north. Ruin was all the way--odd farm-houses burned, towns with half the buildings in them, the Grand Place destroyed, etc. The great square at Namur a heap of brick and mortar.

The great bridge across the Meuse was dynamited, and the three sections hung in the river. All the way to Liege the main bridges had been destroyed, and we had to cross on temporary affairs constructed by the Germans.

And the Germans were thick all the way, holding us up at frequent intervals to look at our papers. They have it in for Belgium, and are in bad humour. We had some fine samples of it during the day.

We stopped not far from Huy for a picnic lunch, and then got under way again, being stopped frequently all the way to Liege, where we sought out the Consulate. The Consul had gone to Spa to look after some English people, but I said my few words to his wife and daughter, and then hurried away toward Vise and the Dutch frontier.

_Vise n'existe plus!_ Goodness knows what was done to the place, but there is nothing left but blackened walls. It took us a long time to find unenc.u.mbered roads and get through between the fallen walls. Not far from the edge of town we found the last German outpost, and were promptly put under arrest because my _laisser-pa.s.ser_ did not bear my photograph. The officer in command cursed me roundly for daring to come through Liege without reporting, placed two armed soldiers in the car, and ordered us sent back. It was futile to point out to him that pa.s.ses issued by the Military Governor General did not need to conform to the local rules; in fact, it only made him peevish. We scorched back over the road to Liege, but I succeeded in making the soldiers stop at a small town where there was a local headquarters of some sort with a colonel in command, I got him to look at our pa.s.s which had been confiscated by our guard, and, after hearing my case and thinking heavily, he unenthusiastically said we might proceed. We went back through Vise even faster, and enjoyed the look of our lieutenant when told he had been overruled. After a minute or so he became very affable and said he had a brother in Jefferson City, Mo., and a nephew in Sacramento, _Californien_, who runs an _Apoteke_. Just to show there was no hard feeling, I gave him a cigar, and a few minutes later we crossed the Dutch frontier, where we created a sensation. A big crowd gathered around the car, and, by the time the leisurely custom officers had examined the papers given me by the Dutch Legation, they were packed so tight that it took the united effort of several officers and citizens to get us extricated.

Holland is taking no chances, and has quant.i.ties of troops ma.s.sed in that part of the country. There are frequent posts to stop travellers and examine papers, and there is practically no traffic on the road save that of a military character.

Near Maestricht we ran into a large detachment guarding a bridge. Our papers did not satisfy the commanding officer, so we were once more placed under arrest and hustled through town to headquarters. The officers there were very courteous, and, after examining my papers, made out a _laisser-pa.s.ser_ for use in Holland and sent me on my way.

By this time it was dark, but we determined to push on as far as Roermond--50 kilometers. Here we found a charming little hotel--the Lion d'Or--and after a good supper, got early to bed.

The next day I planned to take the two ladies--who have good nerve, and don't turn a hair at being arrested--to Rotterdam and then run down to Antwerp, some 280 kilometers, a long run in war time.

We were off at 6:30, and bowled along beautifully in a bitter cold wind until we were in sight of Tilburg, where the engine broke down. Eugene, the chauffeur, tried everything he could think of, and tore his hair in rage and shame. Finally we got a soldier on a bicycle to go into Tilburg and get a motor to tow us in. Then two good hours in a garage before we were in shape to start.

We caught the boat at Moerdyck and got into Rotterdam a little before four. I installed my companions at the Maas Hotel, overlooking the same old Meuse, and then started back through the rain toward Antwerp. At Willemsdorp we just missed the boat for Moerdyck and lost an hour.

Eugene raged and smoked many cigarettes, to the danger of his health, because his _sacree_ machine had lost us so much time.

At eight we got to Rosendaal, near the Belgian frontier, and were forbidden to go any farther until morning, as the outposts were taking no chances.

Had a good supper at the little hotel, had my papers viseed by the Belgian Consul, and at 6 o'clock yesterday morning was up and away, by way of Putte.

The Belgian outposts received us with levelled rifles, but when we got near, one of the officers recognised me through his gla.s.ses, and we got through without any more trouble. Arrived at the St. Antoine as everybody was coming down to breakfast. The Germans were bombarding the outer forts, and they could not believe their eyes when I came in. Not a word of news had got through the lines for some days, and I was nearly torn to pieces by the excited friends.

I had coffee with Colonel Fairholme, and got all the news he could tell me. Malines has been bombarded again, and Antwerp is filled with refugees. Before I left, the Germans had occupied Malines itself and were bombarding the fort at Waelhem.

After breakfast I started out on my carefully planned campaign. First to the Consulate-General to get off some telegrams, etc. Then to the Foreign Office with a lot of things to attend to. I was able to give van der Elst word that his son is in Magdebourg--a prisoner, but not wounded. The look on his face when he got the news paid for the whole trip. I saw M. Davignon, and went with him to see the Prime Minister, who had heard I was there and had sent for me.

On the way we saw hundreds of miserable refugees from Malines pouring down from the station. The courage of these Belgians is beyond all words. Save for the two in the freight station yard at Louvain, I have not seen a woman crying! It may be that they are numb, but they have none of the stupidity of numbness. And when you think that these very women will be creeping back to their homes and caring for the German wounded they find there, it gives you a fine lump in the throat.

I paid a call at the French Legation, went back to the Consulate-General to sign my telegrams and mail which had been hammered out, and then to lunch. Got away at 3:30 to the banging of heavy siege artillery and invitations to come back "if we are still here." As I was getting into the car, Prince D---- plucked me by the sleeve and pointed at the Cathedral tower high above us. "Take a good look," he said. "It may not be here when you come back."

We made good time through the rain, but missed the boat at Moerdyck, and spent an hour on the dock. Got in at ten, ravenously hungry, had a snack, and then to bed.

Up again at six and took the seven-thirty train for Flushing. It loafed along through the country, and we did not sail until eleven. We have to go round to Folkstone, but hope to be in by six o'clock.

There are not more than twenty people on the ship, and the way they went through our credentials was a caution. I was glad I had taken the precaution to provide myself with American, British, German, Dutch and Belgian papers for the trip. There is another examination at Folkstone.

_On board the S.S. "Brussels," off Flushing, October 5, 1914._--To resume.

We got into Folkstone last Wednesday evening at sunset, and got through to London by eight-fifteen. All the latter part of the crossing we were spoken from time to time by British destroyers, which bobbed up from nowhere to warn of floating mines or give directions as to our course.

The entrance to Dover was surrounded by destroyers, and looked grim and warlike, and what's more, businesslike.

Thursday morning I got up as late as I decently could and went down to the Emba.s.sy to find Shaler and Couchman waiting for me. They had been in London since Monday, but had not made much progress with their mission of getting food for Brussels. This was due to no lack of energy on their part, but to the general difficulty of getting attention for any matter at this time. I went with them to the Belgian Legation, and after a talk with the Belgian Minister, we got things started.

As the food was intended for the civil population of Brussels, it was necessary to get the Belgian Minister to secure from the Foreign Office permission to ship it through the blockade. He felt that he must have some instructions from the Government at Antwerp for his guidance in the matter, so I telegraphed at some length, with the result that he had ample instructions before the sun went down. The next day he made three or four calls at the Foreign Office and matters were got under way.

Shaler is buying the food and getting it ready for shipment, and now all that is holding things up is the actual permission to go ahead and ship.

Shaler has had some talk on the general problems that confront us with Herbert Hoover, an American mining engineer, who has given some very helpful ideas and may do more still.

Shaler and Couchman had an experience at Liege they did not particularly relish. They were pulled up by a Landsturm guard somewhere in Liege, taken to the Kommandantur, where it was discovered that they were carrying a number of messages of the "We-are-well-and-hope-you-are-the-same" variety. Without discussion they were pushed into cells and treated to talk that gave them little comfort. They spent the night in jail, but by some means contrived to get word to the Consul, who arrived and delivered them before breakfast.

It evidently grieved the Germans that they could not take these two out and shoot them, but they yielded with a bad grace and turned them loose to hasten to the Consul's breakfast table.

_Brussels, October 11, 1914._--On Sat.u.r.day afternoon late I went with Harold Fowler to call on Sir Claude MacDonald, who had been to the Emba.s.sy twice to see me about the English Red Cross nurses in Brussels.

I tried to rea.s.sure him as to their safety, but he went to see the Amba.s.sador later in the day and asked him to send Harold Fowler back to Brussels with me to bring the nurses out. This suited me perfectly, so we made preparations to get off together.

On Sunday evening we left Fenchurch Street at six, with a little group of friends to see us off. About the only other people on the train were a King's Messenger, a bankrupt Peer and his Man Friday, and a young staff officer. Each set of us had a separate compartment and travelled in lonely state to Tilbury, where the boat was waiting.

As we got aboard the _Brussels_, her sister ship, the _Dresden_, just in from Antwerp, pulled up alongside, and Mrs. Sherman, wife of the Vice-Consul, called me to the rail to give me the latest news. She said that everything was going to pieces, that some of the forts had fallen, and that Antwerp might be under bombardment before we got there. Then she went ash.o.r.e in peace, and we went below to seek the seclusion that the cabin grants, and fortify ourselves for the bombardment.

[Ill.u.s.tration: View of the Meuse at Huy]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Refugees fleeing toward Dunkirk before the German advance, after the fall of Antwerp _Copyright by the International News Service_]

We got under way during the night and dropped down to the mouth of the Thames, where we lay to until daylight, before starting across. The first sound I heard was a hail from a torpedo-boat destroyer, which sent an officer aboard to lay our course for us through the British mine fields. We made our zigzag course across the North Sea and fetched up at Flushing, where we picked up a pilot to take us through Dutch waters.

When darkness overtook us we were just about on the Belgian frontier line and had to lie to for the night, getting to Antwerp Tuesday morning about nine.

We found the place in a great hubbub--everybody packed and ready to leave. They had been on the point of departure since Friday, and the uncertainty had got on everybody's nerves--and no wonder.

Several thousand British Marines had arrived and were doing good work, holding back the Germans, while the exhausted Belgians pulled themselves together for the evacuation. The Belgian forces had been fighting with little rest and no sleep until they were physically incapable of further resistance. How human strength held out so long is the great marvel.

Winston Churchill was in the Legation when I arrived, with General Rawlinson and Colonel Seeley.

After a call at the Foreign Office, most of which had been installed on a boat in the river, I went to the Palace to see General Jungbluth. He was not there, but Countess de Caraman-Chimay said that the King wanted to see me.