Chapter XV A Last Word
I — Synopsis of the War
Last night, when the half moon was golden and the white stars very high, I saw the souls of the killed passing. They came riding through the dark, some on gray horses, some on black; they came marching, white-faced; hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands.
The night smelled sweet, the breeze rustled, the stream murmured; and past me on the air the souls of the killed came marching. They seemed of one great company, no longer enemies.
John Galsworthy.
We were in America when the war broke out. It was as unexpected to me as an earthquake, notwithstanding the warning I had when we were in Brussels. Not knowing the situation then—that war was bound to come—I remember my interest in the excitement of several diplomats who dined with us one evening. They knew that trouble was brewing among the European nations. They could see the spark from the fuse of the bomb that was to throw all Europe into war. The bomb at last exploded, but not until June 28, 1914. The Servians in revenge for Austrian oppression killed the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, when he and his wife were in Sarajevo, Servia, on an official visit.
Two of the principal events leading up to this situation were the assassination of King Alexander of Servia, son of King Milan and Queen Draga, in June, 1903, and the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria in 1908.
Under King Peter, Alexander’s successor, Russian dominance over Servian affairs grew stronger.
When the heir to the Austrian throne was murdered the German Emperor sent a telegram to the Czar which read:—
“The unscrupulous agitation which has gone on for years in Servia has led to the revolting crime of which Archduke Francis Ferdinand was the victim. Undoubtedly you will agree with me that we two, you and I, as well as all sovereigns, have a common interest in insisting that all those morally responsible for this terrible murder shall suffer deserved punishment.”
The Servian and Austrian governments could not come to an understanding, and Austria declared war on Servia.
In answer to the Kaiser’s telegram the Czar replied:—
“A disgraceful war has been declared on a weak nation. The indignation at this, which I fully share, is immense in Russia. I foresee that soon I cannot withstand the pressure that is being brought to bear upon me, and that I shall be forced to adopt measures which will lead to war.”
So it developed that Russia backed up Servia, and Germany backed up Austria.10
Germany needed to expand her territory and commerce and was thoroughly prepared for war. At that time Germany, Austria and Italy were in a Triple Alliance; Russia, France and England a Triple Entente; Italy refused to aid Germany and Austria, however, because she was not bound by her treaty to do so in an offensive war. She was humorously classed with Greece and Roumania in “the triple attendre,” but on May 22, 1915, she joined the Allies, declaring war on Austria.
One of Germany’s excuses in entering upon the war was to keep the “barbarian Russians” out of Europe, but curiously, at this time King Albert received an ultimatum from the Kaiser demanding that the German army should be given the right of way through Belgium. The King replied that the Kaiser must respect the independence and neutrality of Belgium, and refused to let the Germans pass through the country. A second ultimatum was delivered, which demanded that a reply be given within seven hours. If within this time no answer was returned, or an answer unfavourable to Germany, war would be declared.
On August 2d the Germans entered the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. On the 3d they entered Belgium.
The statement made by the Imperial Chancellor von Bethman-Hollweg in the Reichstag on August 4th acknowledges the violation of Belgium:11
“We were compelled to over-ride the just protests of the Luxembourg and Belgian governments. Our troops have occupied Luxembourg and perhaps are already on Belgian soil. Gentlemen, that is a breach of international law. It is true that the French Government has declared at Brussels that France is willing to respect the neutrality of Belgium so long as her opponent respects it. France could wait, but we could not. The wrong—I speak frankly—that we are committing we will endeavour to make good as soon as our military goal has been reached.”
The Germans motored into Belgium by three different roads. Fifteen hundred picked soldiers came in advance in one hundred and fifty automobiles. The army followed at such speed that their commissariat could not keep up with them, and they did not even wait for their heavy siege guns. They expected to live on the country, and so some straggling parties of German soldiers were captured by peasants with an offer of food.
The charming little border town of Visé was the first to be destroyed by the Germans. “This district contains a large population of gun-makers familiar with the use of firearms and unfamiliar with the ways of warfare, and it seems proven that several citizens of Visé did take part in the hostilities and that they fired at the enemy. The Germans retaliated with ruthless severity.”12
Among the weaknesses in the defense of Liège were the lack of sufficient soldiers to man the forts, and the long distances between the different fortresses, as well as the lack of support by rifle entrenchments. The fortresses did not prove impregnable because they were built to withstand a horizontal fire, while the German howitzers dropped shells from above. The three German army corps under General von Emmich made attack after attack. On the third day they lost twenty-five thousand men, some of the crack regiments from Berlin suffering heavily. The forts held out long after the town was occupied by the Germans for the reason that they were built to defend the river approaches rather than the town, and until August 5th the Germans were unable to cross the Meuse.
It was difficult for the Germans to get the proper range for their big guns, and the story is told that a German soldier with a white flag of truce walked towards a fort in order to get the correct distance. His white flag was respected until he arrived at a spot where he signaled back to his comrades. It is needless to say that he was then killed. From the moment when the Germans were able to get the proper range with their heavy siege artillery, the fate of Liège was sealed. Toward the end of August, all the forts were occupied by the Germans.
“The resistance of Liège is not only one of the most magnificent achievements in military annals;—it is also one of the decisive events in the world’s history.”
It has already been the inspiration of much poetry and prose. The following extract is taken from the poem called,
“HOW LIÈGE HELD THE ROAD”13
We were pounding at the anvils when they pounded at our gate;
“Open,” cried the German squadrons; “let us pass, or meet your fate!
We are millions; dare deny us and Liège is but a name.”
But we chose to die in honour than to buy our lives in shame.
So we banked our eager fires, and we laid aside the sledge,
Recking only that our sires had endowed us with the pledge
To maintain an ally’s honour, to uphold the Belgian code,
And we answered with our cannon, THAT LIÈGE WOULD HOLD THE ROAD!
Here are a few of Verhaeren’s remarks on the fall of Liège:
“It is true that for the moment our factories are silenced and seemingly dead, but as soon as the war is over they will awake again like sleeping monsters. We were a little too sure of the tomorrow. War in our eyes was other people’s business. It has come to us, formidable and terrible, at a moment when we did not look for it; like a mountain whose crumbling rocks are falling upon us to crush us William’s army has come upon us. Our numbers were small and we stood alone. We were attacked with disloyalty and betrayal. We hastily raised our forces at Liège in old forts. All that was done in a day, in an hour, in a moment, and at once we became the marvel of the world. The fate of the Spartans was like that of the Liègeois. Today, as then, a handful of men saved the world. We should have only room in our hearts for pride. Tears dishonour us.”
Namur, another great stronghold of Belgium, was bombarded on August 21st, and thirty-six hours later the Germans entered the town. When the forts were destroyed only twelve thousand out of the twenty-six thousand Belgian soldiers were left. Ammunition was so scarce in this region that the Civic Guard had to give up their weapons to the remaining Belgian troops. The French and the British as well suffered a terrible defeat at Charleroi August 22d, and were obliged to retire. Fighting all the way, they made their masterly retreat through Mons into France by way of St. Quentin.
Between the fifth and twentieth of August the poor wounded and dying soldiers were brought into Brussels. When the crowd in the streets shrieked and howled “Vive la Belgique!” the wounded tried to wave their arms (those who had them), and show some sign of appreciation. Houses were opened and prepared by the Red Cross Society to receive them. The refugees as well, from Charleroi and Liège, and from the districts where the fighting was going on, rushed to Brussels for protection, but the Germans were close behind and entered the city on August 20th without firing a shot.
At the beginning of the war hardly any food was to be had in Brussels and other Belgian towns, and what could be bought went up to very high prices. Flour cost fifty cents a pound, and bread one franc for two pounds. Salt was not obtainable.
Adolphe Max, the Burgomaster of Brussels, was forced to take charge of all supplies. The city fed the Germans for eight days without pay. After this period the Mayor refused to furnish food longer without compensation. Then field kitchens were established in several prominent squares—in the Grande Place, before the Palais de Justice, and in front of the King’s palace—where the beautiful trees of the park were cut down for firewood. The museums and hotels were turned into sleeping places for officers and men. The Palais de Justice was made not only a kitchen but also a bath house. The railway stations, too, were used for this purpose.
No carriages or bicycles were allowed to leave Brussels. The people lived in constant terror from German aëroplanes that were flying overhead. After the Germans occupied the city no one dared to speak English.
The Germans thought that Belgian weapons were hidden in the ponds, and so they drained them, and carted away the fish to be eaten by themselves. Fish and bread could not be bought by the people, even if they offered to pay for them.
Every day fresh troops and aëroplanes and ammunition passed through or over Brussels. Cartloads and trainloads of dead Germans were brought night and day to the Gare du Luxembourg to be shipped on to the Fatherland. The moaning of the wounded and the dying was pitiful.
Non-combatants of all nations fighting the Germans were taken prisoners and sent to Germany. All women between the ages of fifteen and forty were kept under German guard; those over forty were told to report every few days to the German authorities.
Villages like Hofstade and Sempst were taken and retaken again and again. Dinant and Termonde fell within a week after the occupation of Brussels. The bombardment of Malines lasted three weeks. Termonde changed hands twice, Malines three times.
The siege of Antwerp began the 26th and lasted several days. The Zeppelin raid before the bombardment was most terrible, but the Germans did not accomplish their purpose of striking the palace and killing the royal family. After this, the Queen went to England for a time with her children, returning later, but the King remained in Antwerp and led the defense.
The small Belgian force had at least kept the Germans out of Antwerp until the valuable oil tanks had been destroyed, as well as the ships in the harbour and the precious stores of rubber from the Congo. The English marines appeared toward the last, and gave some assistance, but the city was finally captured by the Germans, before whom, on September 5th, the Belgian army retired to La Panne. Ostend was occupied by the Germans the 16th of October. Severe fighting took place at Nieuport the 23d, and Westende and Middelkerke were destroyed. Dixmude fell November 11th. Between the 12th and the 15th, 100,000 Germans were killed, and the Yser Canal flowed with human blood.
November 18th, Flanders, as in days of old, was flooded from the sea-coast almost to Ypres, drowning out the enemy. In December, activities were renewed along the Yser, but the trenches about Ypres, “the key to the coast campaign,” were only captured February 15th. Ypres at last fell in May, after repeated attacks.
The exodus of a bleeding race was one of the saddest sights in history. The Belgians literally swarmed into Holland, where they are cared for in camps even today. The reason of this exodus to England and Holland is found in the treatment of the Belgians by the invaders. I will not go into the subject of atrocities, but simply give an extract from the report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Violation of the Rules of International Law, and the Laws and Customs of War.
“From the total mass of evidence received by us we are able to deduct and prove absolutely true the following conclusions....
“I. The first was the barbarous device of compelling bodies of citizens, old and young, male and female, to march in front of German troops in order to shield them from the fire of the Allies.
“II. The second was the imprisonment, either under the title of ’Hostages,’ or on other pretexts, of individuals, families, or groups of people, who were arrested at hazard and for no good reason, shut up without air, without sanitary precautions, and without food, in churches, barns and stables, and carried off to Germany, where they were kept under conditions which made hygiene and decency impossible.
“III. The third series of acts consists of wholesale murders of civilians and of the sack and burning of dwelling houses; concerning these incidents the light of evidence grows daily stronger.”
These men were in command when the atrocities were perpetrated: The Governor-General of Belgium was Field Marshal Baron von der Goltz; von Buelow was in command of Namur and Liège; von Boehn was in command at Termonde. Others in this list were von Emmich, von Nieker, von Luetwitz, and Major Dieckmann.
But the Belgians are a brave people and they are used to misfortune, so we may believe that though seemingly conquered, they will finally be triumphant. Long live the Belgians! Long live their King!
II — Letters From the Front
I insert a few extracts from letters written by reliable people about Belgium, or by Belgians during the war, in order to show the true state of affairs. Most of them were written in French and have been translated. With the exception of the Cardinal’s letter,14 none of them have been published.
Extract from a letter from Brussels in August, 1914.
“We are living in suspense now, as the Germans are getting very strict and angry. Boys and young men leave daily to join the army, and the different ways of crossing the frontier are very amusing. The Germans have forbidden the letter by the Cardinal of Malines to be read in the churches, but needless to say, we all have it.”
Extract from the Pastoral Letter of His Eminence, Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines, Belgium:
“My very dear brethren:
“It was in Rome itself that I received the tidings—stroke after stroke—of the partial destruction of the Cathedral Church of Louvain, next of the burning of the library and of the scientific installations of our great university, and of the devastation of the city, and next of the wholesale shooting of the citizens and of tortures inflicted upon women and children and upon unarmed and undefended men.
“And, while I was still under the shock of these calamities, the telegraph brought us news of the bombardment of our beautiful metropolitan church, of the church of Notre Dame au delà Dyle, of the episcopal palace, and of a great part of our dear city of Malines....
“I craved courage and light, and sought them in such thoughts as these; a disaster has visited the world, and our beloved little Belgium, a nation so faithful in the great mass of her population to God, so upright in her patriotism, so noble in her King and Government, is the first sufferer. She bleeds; her sons are stricken down within her fortresses and upon her fields, in defense of her rights and her territory.
“Soon there will not be one Belgian family not in mourning. Why all this sorrow, my God? Lord, Lord, hast Thou forsaken us?...
“When, immediately upon my return from Rome, I went to Havre to greet our Belgian, French and English wounded; when, later, at Malines, at Louvain, at Antwerp, it was given to me to take the hand of those brave fellows who carried a bullet in their flesh, a wound on their forehead, because they had marched to the attack of the enemy or borne the shock of this onslaught, it was a word of gratitude that rose to my lips. ’O valiant friends,’ I said, ’it was for us, it was for each one of us, it was for me, that you risked your lives and are now in pain. I am moved to tell you of my respect, of my thankfulness, to assure you that the whole nation knows how much she is in debt to you.’
“For, in truth, our soldiers are all saviours. A first time, at Liège, they saved France; a second time, in Flanders, they arrested the advance of the enemy upon Calais. France and England know it, and Belgium stands before the entire world a nation of heroes.
“Never before in my life did I feel so proud to be a Belgian as when, on the platform of French stations, and halting awhile in Paris, and visiting London, I witnessed the enthusiastic admiration our Allies feel for the heroism of our army....
“I have traversed the greater part of the districts most terribly devastated in my diocese, and the ruins I beheld and the ashes, were more dreadful than I, prepared by the saddest of forebodings, could have imagined.
“Other parts of my diocese, which I have not had time to visit, have in a like manner, been laid waste. Churches, schools, asylums, hospitals, convents in great numbers are in ruins. Entire villages have all but disappeared. At Werchter Wackerzeel, for instance, out of three hundred and eighty homes one hundred and thirty remain. At Tremeloo, two-thirds of the village is overthrown. At Beuken, out of one hundred houses twenty are standing. At Schaffen, one hundred and eighty-nine houses out of two hundred are destroyed; eleven still stand. At Louvain, a third of the buildings are down, one thousand and seventy-four dwellings have disappeared. On the town land and in the suburbs, one thousand six hundred and twenty-three houses have been burned.
“In this dear city of Louvain, perpetually in my thoughts, the magnificent church of St. Peter will never recover its former splendour. The ancient college of St. Ives, the art schools, the consular and commercial schools of the University, the old markets, our rich library with its collections, its unique and unpublished manuscripts, its archives, its gallery of great portraits of illustrious rectors, chancellors, professors, dating from the time of its foundation, which preserved for its masters and students alike a noble tradition, and was an incitement to their studies—all this accumulation of intellectual, of historic and artistic riches, the fruit of the labour of five centuries—all is in the dust....
“Thousands of Belgian citizens have been deported to the prisons of Germany, to Munsterlagen, to Celle, to Magdeburg. At Munsterlagen alone, three thousand one hundred civil prisoners were numbered. History will tell of the physical and mental torments of their long martyrdom.
“Hundreds of innocent men were shot. I possess no complete necrology; but I know there were ninety-one shot at Aerschot and that there, under pain of death, their fellow citizens were compelled to dig their graves. In the Louvain group of communes one hundred and seventy-six persons, men and women, old men and sucklings, rich and poor, in health and sickness, were shot or burned....
“We can neither number our dead nor compute the measure of our ruins. And what would it be if we turned our sad steps toward Liège, Namur, Audennes, Dinant, Tamines, Charleroi, and elsewhere? Families hitherto living at ease, now in bitter want; all commerce at an end, all careers ruined, industry at a standstill; thousands upon thousands of working men without employment; working men, shop girls, humble servants, without means of earning their bread, and poor souls forlorn on the bed of sickness and fever, crying, ’O Lord, how long, how long?’
“Thirteen ecclesiastics have been shot in the diocese of Malines. There were, to my own actual personal knowledge, more than thirty in the diocese of Namur, Tournai, and Liège....
“On the 19th of April, 1839, a treaty was signed in London by King Leopold, in the name of Belgium, on the one part, and by the Emperor of Austria, the King of France, the Queen of England, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of Russia on the other; and its seventh article decreed that Belgium should form a separate and perpetually neutral state, and should be held to the observance of this neutrality in regard to all other states. The co-signers promised, for themselves and their successors, upon their oath, to fulfil and observe that treaty in every point and every article without contravention or tolerance of contravention. Belgium was thus bound in honour to defend her own independence. She kept her oath. The other Powers were bound to respect and to protect her neutrality. Germany violated her oath, England kept hers....
“Accept, my dearest brethren, my wishes and prayers for you and for the happiness of your families, and receive, I pray you, my paternal benediction.
“D. J. Cardinal Mercier,
“Archbishop of Malines.”
Here is a letter from a soldier at the front to his parents:
“Tirelemont, 8 August, 1914.
“My dear Parents:
“Here I am at Tirlemont, where we are occupied in reforming our scattered regiment! Many are killed and injured, some are taken, others lost. It is a terrible mix-up, and it will take a long time to get it straightened out, and I am profiting by this moment to write you and let you know what has happened in the last few days.
“We had been fighting all day Wednesday, and when evening came on we were told to dislodge a troop that occupied the space between the two forts. They gave us the message very simply: ’It is death, but it must be done.’ Nothing more. We were under fire all night. We kill without seeing any one. The bullets whistle, a shrapnel explodes five meters from us, we have several killed, and we stay under this rain of bullets and it is awful.
“I could not tell you my impressions. I recited about one hundred vows; I wondered what it felt like to be in heaven, because I was certain that every moment would be my last.
“The Germans advanced more and more, and we retreated, surrounded on all sides, and at four in the morning out of one hundred and sixty in our company only seventeen remained; all are not dead; there are injured and prisoners. We shall return under fire if this keeps up. I will take my part in it; I am ready and prepared, and know that if I die I shall do so with confidence. Do not think that it is with despair that I shall die; it is with the utmost resignation. Do not cry or be sad. I resign myself to my fate, and I ask you to take things in this way also. Adieu, with all my heart. It is perhaps only for a short while, and I shall wait for you above. Much love to the family. I am in good health but very tired. Thousands of affectionate kisses. I have had my photograph taken and they will send you the proof. For my part, I take care to keep your photographs on me, and every day, after looking at them, it gives me fresh courage. Adieu.”
I give next a letter from the Mother Superior of a convent at Liège, written the night after Liège had been attacked:
“In the morning the sound of cannon again shook the chapel.
“The sisters were told to go and get their bundles, and in five minutes to be at the gate, where they would each receive five francs and their papers, and then they were told to run to the station. They did, through the rain, and to the accompaniment of the whistle and whine of German bullets. The Germans were on the heights, and were approaching every minute. The younger sisters helped those who were ill or old. Arriving near the station two sick ones were obliged to go to bed in another convent, and the others installed themselves in the cellars and small hallways. An immense explosion occurred—it was only a bridge they were blowing up, but the garden was filled with broken pieces of iron and steel. Eighteen sisters got into a train filled with wounded and arrived at Brussels at midnight, nearly dead from fright.
“They went up the Boulevard Botanique, where they found an ambulance wagon, which took them to the Mother’s house. The General Superior came to open the door for them, with her white apron and her arm band of the Red Cross. They slept in beds prepared for the wounded, and the next day they were sent to different institutions.
“People knew nothing but false news, given out by the Germans. We had no news for three weeks, so I didn’t even know a new Pope had been elected.”15
This letter is from a Belgian nun:
August.
“My sister Catherine, not being able to get away from Brieux, was obliged to stay there thirteen days, and it was the priest that brought her back to Bosel in tram and cart. He will go back there and show the soldiers the retreat. The Reverend Father von Volkson stayed in Malines till the last, and quietly kept on reciting his mass while they were bombarding the city. He was in civilian dress: but we don’t know where he is now. Have you heard that the Reverend Mother of Tournai had her arm lacerated by a bullet, which then went and hit Mother de B——, who was standing behind her, in the region of the heart, and both of them died, hit by the same bullet? They were going into the loft to see from which direction the Germans were advancing to take possession of the city.
“It is a just war, for God and country. It is this that gives the King and our soldiers superhuman strength. As soon as it was known that Germany was going to insult Belgium, thousands of men offered themselves to fight, and the priests accompanied these brave men to give them spiritual help and encouragement.”
“Ostend—end of October.
“During the week of the 31st of October the Belgians resisted the attacks of the enemy, and the King had the dangerous honour of commanding the Allies’ left wing while they put up a terrific fight to defend Calais, which was the principal prize of this terrific struggle. For six days our Belgians stood the fire of 250,000 Germans, who were afterwards reinforced by 100,000 others. With these forces the enemy had to pass the Yser, which was filled with bodies. Although the fight seemed ended, ’the Belgians’—to quote Cæsar—’continued to dispute the mastery of the last parcel of their territory. With a rage bordering on grief they thought they would have to capitulate immediately.’ The Belgians lost 10,000 men. They attacked again, and the enemy was forced to repass the Yser red with blood, and they were chased ten miles towards the north.
“But still, though we have lost so many, we have not lost courage. In the midst of our ruined cities and our burnt and ruined crops, higher than our burnt towers, higher than the cruel deeds, stands our hope, and higher than the ignominy our proud independence, our love for the King and our land. Not for one instant has the Belgian spirit regretted the call of honour that has caused us such calamities, and tomorrow she would still refuse, even at the same price and at the cost of the same martyrdom!
“Sir Edward Grey saluted the Comte de Lalaing (Minister Plenipotentiary at London) with the title of Ambassador, of which Belgium is worthy.
“If you could only hear our injured and wounded speak of the King. When an officer fell the King took his place, crying out, ’Come, my children, shoot now, like this, all together.’ And you should see how they killed their enemies! Today is the fête-day of our poor little Queen; what an anniversary! At the Palace Hotel they give the wounded wine in her honour, and they sing the ’Brabançonne,’ and ’Vers l’Avenir.’”
I give two verses of the “Brabançonne”:—
“Fled the years of servile shame,
Belgium, ’tis thine hour at last,
Wear again thy ancient name,
Spread thy banner on the blast.
Sovereign people, in thy might
Steadfast yet and valiant be,
On thy ancient standard write—
Land and Law and Liberty!
“Belgium, Mother, hear us vow,
Never will our love abate,
Thou our hope, our refuge thou,
Hearts and blood are consecrate.
Grave, we pray, upon thy shield
This device eternally,
Weal or woe, at home, a-field,
Land and law and liberty.”
From Countess ——:
“Brussels—October.
“Food is easy to get if not plentiful and the bread eatable in Brussels. V. got out of Belgium this time without being caught. We are full of hope. We are well and busy. Every one is trying to help those in need. There is much to do. Those who still remain here see each other often. We meet at each other’s houses for tea and bring information. A. was wounded in the head and has been taken prisoner. Mr. Whitlock’s untiring devotion to his work is more than appreciated by every class. He is just the man for the place. The Spanish Minister is a great help. We have had no letter since August. I knit madly to keep calm. I hope the day may come when I may say all that is in my heart. It is a suffocating feeling to have a foreign occupation. We have such a time getting the papers. One sheet appears a day, and all we want to know is carefully left out by the Germans.”
In October there comes a moan from Luxembourg.
“Luxembourg.
“We are crying for flour. Nothing sent from America can reach Luxembourg. The railways are destroyed by dynamite, toutes les routes ravagées; not one way of communication at present. The rich as well as the poor are dying of hunger and cold. All the horrors of our enemies are, alas! quite true. We are ruined, our money gone, the villa burnt. Tears are dropping on the letter as I write. This letter which may never reach you.”
“October.
“My good Mother,
“I have thought of you very often since it has pleased God to visit upon us the horrors of war. What damages have been caused by the Germans in our country! At Dinant Mr. Wassege has been shot with his two sons because he did not want to open the safe of the bank or give the combination. Seventy-five other civilians had the same fate, also hundreds of little children. The horrors the Germans have committed here are fit for Turks or savages; I could state hundreds of cases. In Antwerp two beautiful estates, which were situated near the forts, belonging to well-known German society people, were found to have underground passages leading to the fortresses. By chance, barrels were found containing German uniforms for those we have received with so much kindness, to put on when the German soldiers occupy the city, as was seen in Verviers. In several houses in Antwerp wireless plants were discovered. In Antwerp hundreds of spies were found, who dressed in all manner of clothing, as nuns, priests, and nurses.
“They are taking the civilians away to serve as soldiers in the German army, or to gather their crops. In Namur they have started to write down the births, deaths, and marriages, and the people must take German names, or be shot.
“Eight thousand people fleeing from Louvain were forced to march a great distance by the Germans, eight in a line, and they had to keep their hands in the air all the time. They had to fasten Helen P——’s baby on her back—she is the niece of Mother V. E—— so that she could walk in this way. Our soldiers often have Communion, and are full of courage and confidence. They love the King, who shows himself full of courage. He marches at the head of his troops, and after a battle shakes hands with the soldiers; we can be proud of him.
“A magistrate on his way back to Brussels was given a letter to deliver. He told a friend on the train he had the letter on his person, but did not know where to hide it. His friend said he was doing a very dangerous thing, for if the letter was found on him he would be shot. He also said: ’You must read it, then tear it up, and transmit the news orally.’ This he did. Later the train was surrounded by Germans, who announced that no one was to descend, and that it was forbidden to carry letters, and in consequence every one was going to be searched. Terrible fright! Of the people carrying letters, one managed to eat his, when he found that it could not be hidden and he was not able to throw it away.... The magistrate presented himself at six-thirty at the proper place, and recited the contents of the letter and told the story of his trip.”
“London—November.
“As for the Belgian refugees, it is getting to be a great problem what to do with them. There are thousands and thousands like droves of frightened sheep, not a particle of clothing but what they stand up in, and not a penny in the world. You just cannot realize it unless you see them. Ladies and gentlemen of fine position and peasants all together, and all helpless and homeless.
“It seems so horrible to think that our only thought is to kill, and that we rejoice when the enemy has lost men. I hardly dare think of it. It seems as though we had all gone mad.
“The King Albert Hospital is working well, and three more Belgian hospitals have had to be opened. They now all work under military authority, and so they do not need our assistance any more, I mean, in the way of our being there daily.
“Mrs. B—— and I have now put our hearts and energies into a Maternity Home for Belgians, that is, we have two, one for ladies and one for working women. They are both such sweet, pretty homes, that it really must help them to forget the cruelties of being far from their husbands and homes. They nearly all call their sons Albert, and the daughters either Elizabeth or Alberta.
“The streets and shops are filled with Belgians, one hears French in busses, everywhere in fact. One often hears Flemish too. I was surprised when I first heard it, for it sounded so like German. L’Echo Belge, a Flemish paper published in London, has on the first page: ’Voor God en Vaderland’—’Pour Dieu et Patrie.’ A great many papers are published here for the Belgians and French. There are innumerable appeals, many for Belgium, such as: Belgian Relief Fund, the Belgian Soldiers Fund, and so forth.
“Limericks are very common among the soldiers and are very good. Here is one about a Belgian girl. Please remember that Ypres is called Wipers by Tommy Atkins.
“There was a young lady of Ypres,
Who was hit in the cheek by two snipers,
The tunes that she played
Through the holes that they made,
Beat the Argyle and Sutherland pipers.”
“The shop windows are full of war games, such as: ’Storming the Citadel’—’Kill Kiel’—and the ’Dreadnaught game.’
“Tommy gives the bombs such amusing names, ’Black Marias,’ ’Aunt Sally’s Nephews,’ and ’Eagle Eggs.’ The German trench motor is called ’The Undertaker.’ The anti-aircraft gun is nicknamed ’Archibald’ and the German howitzer which emits a thick white smoke is called ’The Woolly Bear.’ He calls these picturesque names ’Slanguage.’”
“Brussels—November.
“We are passing horrible hours. You cannot imagine what it has been the last three months. Everywhere misery, crêpe and ruin. To add to the horror of the situation, famine has arrived. Most of our friends have had their châteaux pillaged. The buildings even are often destroyed. Our friends arrive in the night on foot, with all that they own on their backs and their children following them. They often walk miles before finding a roof to shelter them, for many villages are burnt to the ground, deserted, and many of the people shot. C’est affreux!
“Henri has won two galons for his bravery in battle. The last news we have of him is good. Dieu merci. Jean has been slightly wounded. What a relief to have him safe for the moment in a hospital. George de Ligne, Henri d’Oultremont, tués, Guy Reynteins blessé. Two of the Cornet Counts have been taken from their château, which was burned, and no one knows what has become of them. Every day the Germans are more brutal and more hateful. They are worse than they are depicted.
“We are indeed grateful to the American Minister. He is intelligent, active and kind, as well as a charming man.
“It is difficult to get the food distributed in the villages, for there are no means of conveyance, except motors run by twenty-four young Americans. They are doing fine work and are a great help. The d’Assches, de Mérodes, Beeckmans and de Beughems are here.”
A letter from Switzerland reads:
“November.
“I have been at a camp of French and Belgian soldiers in Germany, nearly fifteen thousand of them, all without blankets. They dig holes in the ground and get into them, and then spread their coats over the top in order to sleep and keep warm.”
A letter from a cousin at a hospital in France says,
“Today seventy French soldiers were brought in, all with their right hands gone.”
“Brussels—end of December.
“The weather is awful, the fighting in the North has been again very violent. We have little wool to knit with. We need flannel too for the soldiers. It is freezing. We are trying to get warm clothes to the soldiers. We are having a snowstorm such as has not been seen for twenty years, in fact one might be in America. The snow has lasted five days. Everything is all frozen and one slips and the trams are all crowded. Hospital things are particularly necessary.
“My husband asked a German, an old friend of his, if it was possible for me to take clothes to the English prisoners here. He was refused. No one has been able to help the poor English, and God only knows how they are being treated by these brutes. We have been able to help the French prisoners.”
“February.
“I saw at Ostend an old woman of ninety, who had walked from Waterloo. I do not like to write much, as it is safer not to do so. The money that was sent will go at once to a woman with five children, whose husband was wounded. I have been taking care of him at the hospital. He is well again and leaves today for the front. The wounded try to get well as quickly as possible, as they want to return to the front.
“My villa à Duinbergen près de Heyst sur mer is occupied by the Germans. My maid was left in charge. The Germans ordered her to give them our clothes. I hear my house is a house de debauche et d’orgie. La femme de chambre a été molestée par un soldat ivre. When the old gardener and his wife tried to interfere, the soldiers said if they did, they would shoot them. Oh, when will this cease and the world know the truth? Cette abominable race! My heart is broken.”
“The Hague, Feb. 22, 1915.
“My uncle and aunt are in Anjoux. Think of the life they lead, constantly struggling against all sorts of plunder, the worst elements of the population now having free play. Anarchy is uppermost in many places.... They have no respect for anything. What ruin on all sides, and to think that our poor little country was always so hospitable to those Germans!
“As to the Royal family: I know the Queen never leaves La Panne (the last Belgian village). Every day she is with the wounded and goes very near the trenches. She is admirable in her courage and strength, and I know she suffers terribly from the conduct of her compatriots (she is Bavarian), but in justice I must say that the Bavarians have everywhere behaved better than the others. The Prussians have been terrible. The old Princesse de Ligne, widow of Prince Edward, who is the Mother of the Councillor of our Legation here in The Hague, arrived here in October. She stayed one month and a half at the Château de la Neuville, near Liège, and under German dominion. Although speaking German perfectly, as she is Austrian by birth, she had a great deal to suffer. A German colonel with his revolver in his hand followed her all over the house and made her show him everything. (The same thing happened to the Comtesse de Mérode at the Château de Waterloo; everything was opened, searched, and in part plundered.) The Princesse de Ligne replied to one officer that a certain old salver of repoussé silver was not for sale, when he wished to buy it. The next day that and other pieces of silver were gone. At Conjoux they passed days of anguish during the burning of Dinant. There was a battle in the wood back of the little house where we had so often had tea.
“The plundering of Dinant was most terrible, and what has been told of the horrors of that time is not at all exaggerated. Up to the present time they have exhumed 981 bodies of civilians, of which one hundred are children between three months and ten years. All this is official. There have, of course, been exaggerations, but how many horrors are still unknown!
“There were just such massacres at Audennes, Visé, Louvain, Aerschot and Termonde, not to speak of the smaller villages, and J. told me when he passed through here to join the army that in going through Dinant between Aisny and Philippeville there was not one village that had not been completely destroyed. At Liegnon (the station where one leaves the train in going to Conjoux) they imprisoned 900 peasants in a church for seventeen days. No one was allowed to go in. Two women were confined and were unable to have a doctor. The curé of Lorinnes, near Conjoux, had his lungs pulled out on each side with the hooks that are used for the tires of motor cars. I could go on telling you of just such incidents for pages and pages.
“The Château of Ardenne, which had become the property of the State through the gift of Leopold II, has been completely emptied. There is not one piece of furniture left, nor a frame, nor a picture; everything is gone, and this is the case in many châteaux.
“At Ghent my family have suffered a great deal from the presence of the enemy in their homes. I have already told you of their installing the passport office in our grandfather’s drawing room; you remember the one where the picture hung and the chests that belonged to Marie Antoinette. You may imagine the filth, and they insisted on putting in gas, saying it was so dark they could not see. It is true it was dark, but they had no right to ruin everything. It is curious that our grandfather still has papers giving an account of the Cossacks’ sojourn in 1814. In the very same house, a Russian colonel was lodger. According to these papers, there were far fewer injuries and complaints than in 1914 against the Germans. At Laeken, in the royal château, the Germans held a veritable orgy and ruined everything; such dirt; and horrors so ignoble that I dare not describe it further. The fact is that everything in that beautiful château is in a deplorable condition.
“The Germans hope to demoralize us by circulating false reports. Every day despatches from the Kaiser announcing their victories are posted on the walls of the towns; this also to encourage their troops. The soldiers arriving in Ghent think they are within a few miles of London. The people have naturally taken a mischievous delight in undeceiving them and telling them they were by no means near London, but near the Yser. They actually wept, for the Yser is their nightmare, and with reason. That is easily understood. They do not advance; quite the contrary.
“The King and Queen are still at La Panne. Little Prince Leopold, thirteen years old, is with them now. The other day all three on horseback reviewed the new recruits on the beach; all the time the German aeroplanes were throwing bombs.
“We have a new army of 200,000 men, and it increases every day. The spirit of the troops is excellent. The other day the Queen went with little Prince Leopold as far as the second line of trenches to see the soldiers. It was near Nieuport. She sat down amongst them, and after she left the soldiers made a little sanctuary of the spot where she had sat. Our sovereigns are adored by their troops, and they well deserve it. Nothing matters to them—neither suffering, fatigue, danger nor money, for they are wonderfully generous. Nearly all the Relief Societies for Refugees in Belgium, here in Holland, in England, and in France have had gifts from them, and in some cases they have been considerable. It is thought now that the barbarity of the Germans and their cruelty has ceased since they have been stopped at the Yser, but this is not so. Naturally massacres are less systematic than during the first three months of the war, but there are constantly peasants and civilians shot and priests sent to Germany. At Cortemarch (near Roulers) they sent the curé and the vicar to Germany because they accused the village of having had a spy. This they posted themselves in all the Flemish towns. The number of people who have had to pay ransom for one or another soi-disant reason is countless. Our cousin, living at Wielt, has been imprisoned and forced to pay one thousand marks fine for daring to lift his voice feebly against the requisitions, without even payment by note, that were levied on the farmers.
“The Germans have now forbidden disinterment of the bodies, as the proof of their cruelty was too obvious. At the time of the flight of our poor population here the little children, seeing the Dutch soldiers dressed in gray, took them for Germans, and lifted up their little arms as these latter had obliged them to do. There are still in Holland 250,000 poor refugees. They are nearly all settled in camps of wood which in the beginning were very bad, but are improving now every day. After the taking of Antwerp there were one million here for one or two months.
“My brothers are well, thank God.—Pray.—Let us pray together if you will, for all. God will hear us and will give us the joy of acclaiming our King in Brussels when he reënters at the head of his army. It is the goal and dream of all the Belgians. It will be a day of wild and mad delirium. It gives me the shivers even to dream of it.”
From the son of Dr. Depage to his mother while she was lecturing in America:—
“April.
“La Panne16 has changed a great deal these last few weeks. The tourist that would come here would think himself in an exhibition, just before opening day.
“On all sides one sees tents that spring from the ground. The floors would make fine skating rinks when the war is over.
“Truly the medical career is full of surprises, and I sometimes ask myself if my father, who as a youngster poached in the Forêt de Soignes, ever thought or even dreamed that he would one day be not only a great doctor, but a superior officer in the Belgian army.
“Life is a strange thing, Mother dearie, but I think that it can be very beautiful, if one understands it,—and also very sad.
“As to the war, the wounded are taking the illusion from us that we are having a vacation at the seaside.
“The weather has been so beautiful since the first day of spring that one is sometimes surprised not to see parasols of flaming colours, and the silhouettes of pretty women walking on the beach, or to see happy children building forts, which the incoming tide soon destroys. Alas! are we not all big children, we Belgians, that resist the incoming tide, and our forts no better or stronger? But I think the tide is high now, and soon it will go down.
“As to Y. P—— I think that we must give up all hope of seeing him again. We thought for a while he was a prisoner, but though we tried to find him we could not. And then, he would have let his mother have news from him, don’t you think?—since the 22d of October.
“We must not think of him now, we must remain courageous and keep on hoping.
“After the war, it will be time to count the spaces in our ranks, and I fear there will be many. My comrade was killed in our first bayonet charge. (You know we fight as much as possible in pairs.) I was about to kill a German when the man begged so pleadingly for his life, saying he had a wife and children, that I faltered for a moment—in that moment he half turned and quickly killed my comrade.”
“Brussels—end of April.
“Everybody here deprives himself to help the more unfortunate. Thanks to America the famine has been averted. The American Minister is adored and blessed by all. He is so simple and modest that he doesn’t like manifestations of thanks, but after the war we hope to show our appreciation. The d’Assches, Woelmonts, Pierre van der Straten and other faithful ones remain here until the day of deliverance. The Germans, after they have massacred and pillaged, now remain more quiet. They are ashamed, with reason, of their infamous doings, and I think the cruelties are past. But how does one know with barbarians? We are waiting for the Roumanians and the Greeks, and the Italians to enter on our side. The whole world wants to get all and risk nothing. I am writing to ask you if the singers in New York will not be able to organize something for the benefit of their dear brothers and sisters here. No music is possible. Professors and artists die from hunger....
“I want to tell you that my little Marie is going to make her first communion privately. It is a sweet consolation for me to prepare her. She is so simple and religious that I believe her prayers must be acceptable to the Lord. She is very young, only just seven; but as you know, Pope Pius Tenth wished that children should take their first communion at that age. In these grave days we wanted her to receive this great favour that she may unite her innocent prayers with ours in order that the Lord may hear us the better.”
“London, May 1, 1915.
“It is very wearisome waiting to be sent to La Panne—but the shelling of Dunkirk does not bode well for our speedy departure. We simply have to wait from day to day, ready to start at short notice. The American Red Cross doctors and nurses—of the two new units, just arrived from America—are waiting also in London. The rules are stricter and stricter for leaving England.... No one may now leave for nursing without having been definitely engaged in a hospital over there. People are often turned back from Dover in spite of passports which are apparently perfectly correct.
“You see La Panne is at present under shell fire—the King and Queen have been headquartering there, an added reason for the Germans to try to demolish it. But I hear that just now they have been too near La Panne to be able to get so short a range, and Dunkirk as you know has been the victim. Many hospitals there are being evacuated.... In the meantime I have been rather enjoying some free time here in London. I was busy for a while getting my new uniforms for La Panne—and odds and ends necessary for the ’war zone.’ The uniform is of dark blue, and we wear caps with a long white veil behind. In order to get my certificate I had to take an oral medical examination—in French—before five Belgian doctors. A very trying ordeal, for it was really a stiff examination, with questions which are asked of trained nurses in their third year. But I got through somehow, and am now the proud possessor of a certificate giving me ’le droit de me mettre au service de la Croix Rouge de Belgique en qualité d’infirmière’ signed by all the doctors.
“All the food for La Panne is sent out from London on Monday of each week by the Admiralty boat. They send only once a week, as it is necessary for supplies to be watched and escorted all the way—otherwise they get stolen. One day we saw a lot packed up all ready to start—some friends of Mother’s have charge of the whole fund, and also of the refugee fund which distributes food all over London and neighbourhood. They have been very nice to me, and offered me a job to drive a motor-van for them, carrying food to Belgian hostels and families. I went out with another girl once or twice, but have had no time yet to do anything regularly.... We are told that they are very much in need of ether at La Panne—and I want to send out some with the money which has been given me. But this last week or two nothing could be sent—fortunately there is a reserve supply of food at La Panne and another in Dunkirk, so it has not mattered much.... Since I came from Paignton I have been staying at the Nurses’ Hostel in Francis Street, off Tottenham Court Road, with Nurse Walsh and Nurse Scott. It is very big and comfortable—and very cheap—well known all over the world. And nurses are pouring in almost daily from Canada and Australia. It is quite an experience staying there, and I slept in a cubicle the first three nights to see what it was like!
“One day we went to an exhibition by the Women’s Signaling Corps. Women and girls are learning flag-signaling, and they are also to take up bicycle despatch-riding, telegraphy, etc. The idea is of course to free men for the front. Miss D——, who is the chief officer of the women police, and a remarkable woman, came to dinner with us last week. They have been enrolled with the aim of providing a body of trained women for the service of the public.
“I inclose you a copy of a letter from Lieutenant X——, who was in command of two companies of Gurkhas at the fight at Neuve Chapelle. It was written to his family on his twenty-eighth birthday.”
The letter from Lieutenant X—— follows:
“March 15, 1915.
“I ought to consider myself lucky to see another 15th of March, after the last five days. It has been absolute hell, but anyhow we won ground and killed more than we lost. The best way of telling you will be to quote my diary again.
“March 9th we spent in billets very cold, frosty and snow showers. Marched off at 11.30 P. M. for the Neuve Chapelle front, so we got no sleep that night.
“March 10th. Arrived in a trench line at about 3 A. M. after a march full of checks, owing to the crowded roads. The action about to take place was not a small one, but one by a front of three divisions, of which we were the center one. At 4.30 A. M. punctually, 480 guns opened fire and never I should think in history has there been such a bombardment. Our guns blazed away—the country behind was a mass of gun flashes—and in front of us a mass of smoke and shell bursts. There was not a second in which you could say, there is no gun firing—it was a continuous rattle and roar, and you could not hear yourself speak. We had to lie very low in our trench and there were several short bursts of our own shell going overhead; in fact I picked up two shrapnel bullets on my right hand side, and the base of a fuse on my left hand side. According to arrangements, at 8 A. M. our guns increased their range, and our first attacking line advanced under the enemy’s trenches. The first and second lines reached the enemy’s trenches with very little loss comparatively, as the enemy were quite disorganized by our shelling. They passed over two lines of trenches and reached an old trench line dug in the early days of the war—called the Smith-Dorrien line—about 1,200 yards beyond. I followed close behind, and Major B—— came last—we had about 96 casualties in the first advance. We all reached the Smith-Dorrien line with the Germans in full retreat, our guns firing shrapnel on them. At this point we could have advanced still further, but that for one thing our guns were still dropping shells just in front of us, and for another the division on our left had not advanced sufficiently to support us. My double company only got about thirty prisoners and two machine guns. We immediately started digging ourselves in against an expected counter-attack. Some snipers from a trench on our right troubled us for some time; the regiment on our right had somehow advanced beyond the trench without killing its occupants.... At dark another brigade passed through us and advanced towards a wood 1,000 yards in front of us, and entrenched themselves 250 yards in our front. Maxim and rifle fire was opened on them by the enemy from the edge of the wood, but they did not suffer very heavily.
“March 11th. The entrenched line ahead of us was held all day. We got heavily shelled all day—the heaviest shells dropped behind, Jack Johnsons and Woolly Bears, while we had shrapnel, bombs and nasty double-acting shells which burst first with white smoke, and fifty yards further on with black smoke. We also got a good share of a shell which gave out the most beastly-smelling gases. Major B—— was wounded in the head by a bomb which burst on our parapet within a foot of my head, blowing a large hole in the parapet and covering me with earth. The explosion of it, so close, instead of deafening me seemed to clear a passage through my head from ear to ear, and I went through all the processes of death. It seemed to me I was a goner, and it was some seconds before I realized I was alive and unhurt. The brigade in our front was ordered to retire in the night, and we were told to hold their evacuated trench with pickets. I sent out a picket from my double company—they remained out until 5 A. M., when I was ordered to withdraw them.
“March 12th. They had only just come in when the Germans were seen advancing, and a fearful fusillade of rifle fire from our trenches began. After a time the firing slackened and dawn came, when in front of us were lines of dead Germans. We counted about one hundred in our immediate front—there were lots more to right and left, and the trench just evacuated in our front was thick with them. We had some very useful pistols with us, which fire a big cartridge and light up the ground in front. I fired fifteen rounds with mine to enable my men to see to fire. Only a few live Germans remained in the trench to our front, and these a British regiment turned out in an attack at 1 P. M. Their first line advanced through us, but suffered rather heavily from fire from a trench to our left front. Their second line was about to advance, and the officer in command of it jumped lip close by me and shouted ’Second line advance,’ when he dropped, shot through the head. The third line never advanced. On our right the —— Gurkhas advanced to the front trench and suddenly white flags began to appear, and after some difficulty we got our men to stop firing, and a few of the Gurkhas began sending prisoners back. In a moment both sides were standing up out of the trenches, on our side we were waving to the Germans to come in, and on their side they were waving flags and calling for us to go and fetch them—but this we could not do, as they continued to fire and we could not trust them. But the —— Gurkhas collected a lot on the right and more followed, many of them wounded, and came into our lines. About a hundred came like this, I should think. Many more would have liked to come from further to the left, but it was difficult to arrange, as they kept firing and at the same time did not trust us sufficiently to leave cover. However we got a fair bag.
“March 13th. All to-day and yesterday too we had absolute hell from enemies’ artillery. All day we lay flat against the front parapet in fear and trembling—we were very crowded in our trench as a British regiment was there too, and such crowding added of course to the casualties. The shells dropped all round us—many dropped close in front and behind, putting the fear of God into us. All this time our artillery was firing too and the noise was terrific. The men behaved absolutely splendidly and did not move from their places. At 5 P. M. we got news that we were to be relieved—we were pleased and the men bucked up at once and started chattering away. We hoped to go out at dusk, but were disappointed, as a message came to say a German counter-attack was expected, and we must remain for the time being. However I got away about 8 P. M., and reported to the Colonel, who told me to march off to billets. Off I went with my men and myself, all as happy as could be, but I only got as far as our brigade headquarters a mile away, when the General said, he was very sorry but the —— and —— Gurkhas had to stay in reserve to the brigade who had relieved us. This was a bit fat after five days and nights without any wink of sleep for any one; for we had to work all night at improving our trench and repairing it where shells had damaged it, digging graves for killed, seeing to wounded going back; and in the day it was impossible to sleep for the noise, and casualties occurring now and then, and the fear of a German attack. However there was nothing for it, so I explained the situation to my men, who I must say took it very well. I almost cried for pity at their disappointment, for they were all dead tired: in fact none of us could walk in a straight line, and they were looking forward to a good sleep and some decent food again. However they turned and marched forward again, but no sooner had I arrived than a staff officer of the other brigade came and said the —— and —— Gurkhas were no longer required—so about turn again and back we went at a snail’s pace. I halted at one place for water, as the men had been rather short of water the whole time, and I gave them an hour’s sleep by the roadside at another point.
“March 14th. It was about four miles to our billets and we got in just at dawn—our billets are near to L——. After some food they started to get some rest, but at 12 noon we had to change to another house half a mile away. Poor fellows, they have had a time, but the whole regiment has behaved splendidly and they are as cheerful as ever. Many acts of individual bravery were performed. During the attack there was a house full of Germans, but the difficulty was to get them out. One of our fellows went in and called upon all of them to surrender—and he brought out nine of them. On another occasion some of our men had to bring up ammunition along a nullah which was swept by machine-gun fire. One of the men was wounded, but another coming up behind stopped, put down the ammunition box he was carrying and dressed the wound, remaining under fire till he was killed. A Jack Johnson burst near one of our machine guns and buried every man except one, who was only buried up to the waist. He got out and dug out the others, and all were saved. Poor Major F—— was shot through the head during the German counter-attack and killed. In my own double company I had Major D—— wounded, 30 men wounded, and 9 killed. Our regimental casualties were 1 British officer killed, 2 Gurkha officers killed, and 39 rank and file killed, 3 British officers (Major B——, Major T—— and Captain S——) wounded, not seriously; 2 Gurkha officers and 170 rank and file wounded, 35 missing, probably killed or wounded. Losses in the other four regiments in the brigade were much the same. A great many of the Germans against us were found to have bullets on them with the tips snicked off with cutters, making them act like dum-dum bullets—in fact three were shot for this on the spot. Several of our wounded showed dum-dum wounds....
“You noticed perhaps that Sir John French’s despatches, after the recent fighting, thanked the Worcesters ’a second time’—and everybody does not know that the first time was at Mons. Towards the end of that battle, Sir Douglas Haig came and said he thought they couldn’t possibly hold on any longer. General French agreed reluctantly, and gave the order for a general retreat. But immediately Sir Douglas Haig came back in haste to report that the Worcesters were still holding on, and the General said, ’Then let us all hold on a little longer.’ The tide turned and the Germans retreated—and so it was that a plain little company of Worcesters saved Europe! Three separate times General French started to go and thank the Worcesters, and three times he had to turn back—he couldn’t speak for the choke in his throat....”
III — American Relief Work
At first there was some discussion as to the advisability of America’s feeding the Belgians. International law told us that it was the duty of the army occupying foreign territory to feed the civilian population. English soldiers felt that by importing foodstuffs into Belgium, America was helping the Germans. But Germany was unwilling to take upon herself this additional load, and some one had to do it. While the discussion was going on, seven million people were beginning to starve. “The hungry stomach knows no politics, and when a man is drowning, pull him out and not ascertain who threw him in.” So America came to the rescue.
After the destruction of Louvain a committee was formed in New York to collect funds for the Belgians, headed by Mr. de Forrest. His Excellency, Mr. Emmanuel Havenith, and His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, at once started a general movement, thinking that a comparatively small sum would be needed. The Millers’ Belief Committee, headed by Mr. Edgar in Minneapolis, was among the first to respond. My husband started the New England committee at that time.
Later, Mr. Whitlock informed Mr. Page, our Ambassador in London, of the great devastation in Belgium, as a result of which millions of people were on the verge of starvation. So a commission of Americans was formed in England, headed by Mr. Hoover, They sent Mr. Lindon W. Bates over here to organize committees throughout the United States. The British and Belgian governments promised to help, as well as the Spanish, and Germany gave permission for foodstuffs to be distributed to non-combatants in Belgium. The Spanish and American Ministers in Brussels, and their committees in other towns in Belgium, had charge of the distribution.17
This Commission perfected a wonderful system of shipping and of giving out the supplies. Everything was issued from the principal and branch stations of the Commission in Belgium into the hands of the “Commission Nationale Comité de Secours,” a well-organized Belgian association.
The appeal to the governors of states and to the Rockefeller Foundation met with the most generous response. The American railways and express companies for a time gave free transportation, and then coöperated to ship at reasonable prices. The Rockefeller Foundation also undertook to furnish free ocean transportation, and chartered the first ship that sailed from America with food for the Belgians, the Maesapequa, which left here November 4th and reached Rotterdam the 18th. The Foundation also contributed foodstuffs.
Throughout the winter everybody knitted madly. The unemployed were set to work at small pay making garments, and people literally took their clothes off their backs to send. Plays, concerts, lectures, moving picture shows and rummage sales took in money which was later turned into food.
The way in which this food was put up was original and quite American. Boxes were filled with nourishing food suited to the needs of three classes of refugees—infants, convalescents, and adults.
“A package for infants and young children should include thirty pounds of evaporated, unsweetened milk; about two pounds of milk sugar, five pounds of barley flour, five pounds of cornmeal, five pounds of oatmeal, and two ounces of salt. This will sustain from two hundred to two hundred and fifty infants or young children for one day.
“For packages for convalescents the following is recommended: Fifteen pounds of evaporated milk, fifteen pounds of malted milk; one pound can of olive or cottonseed oil; two pounds of canned chicken, five pounds of brown rice, seven pounds of whole wheat or white flour, three pounds of sugar, two pounds of tea, and six ounces of salt. It is estimated that this will sustain from one hundred to one hundred and fifty convalescents for one day.
“A package for well adults should contain: Five pounds of canned baked beans, eight pounds of dried lentils, peas or beans, five pounds of canned salmon, five pounds of oatmeal, five pounds of cornmeal, fifteen pounds of whole wheat or white flour, two pounds of sugar and six ounces of salt. This will furnish a sustaining ration for fifty adults for one day.”
“Not one mouthful has gone down a German throat yet, nor do I believe it ever will,“ wrote Mr. Hoover; ”we have had nothing but help from the Germans in the distribution of American foodstuffs in Belgium. Belgium raises less than forty per cent. of its own food. The war struck it in the midst of the harvest, and Belgium had made no provision to feed itself in time of trouble. The minimum monthly requirements of the Belgian population are sixty thousand tons of grain, fifteen thousand tons of maize, three thousand tons of rice and peas, at a cost of four or five million dollars.”
There was no milk for thirty thousand babies at the end of November. The cows had all been killed or taken by the Germans for the army. The starving mothers could give little nourishment to their infants, and the supply of condensed milk was quickly used up. This picture was brought by an American from Belgium:
“I stood one morning by the back door of a German cook camp, watching a group of Belgian women grubbing through the trash heap piled up behind the camp. All these women carried babies. ’What are they doing?’ I asked a German sergeant with whom I had struck up an acquaintance. ’Scraping our condensed milk cans,’ he said. ’It is the only way to get milk for their babies. I have seen them run their fingers round a can which looked as bright as a new coin, and hold them into the babies’ mouths to suck.”
Six thousand meals a day were served in Brussels alone in the autumn. In some places one large baker’s bun a day was all that was issued by the authorities; in other places, one bowl of cabbage soup. By April there were forty-seven soup kitchens in Brussels.
A shipload of food meant one day’s rations for the Belgians. When the first ship arrived at the Hook of Holland, the city of Rotterdam rejoiced. While the unpacking went on, speeches were made and banquets held, and American national airs were played. The cargo of the ship was put into canal barges, which by German permission were allowed to make their way to the different towns.
To show how quickly the food is distributed—in three hours sixty thousand people received bread. Three hundred and sixty sacks of American flour arriving at Verviers was distributed in the form of bread the following morning. According to the system of the Commission, each person receives three cards. “One is kept at the office, the other two are given to the applicant. One of these he keeps and presents each day for his quota of rations, i. e., bread. The other he gives to his baker. With this card the baker makes application to the storehouse for the necessary flour to cover the demand of the bread card. The bread card calls for 325 grams of bread; the baker’s card for 250 grams of flour. When there are not full rations to be had, the applicant gets the percentage available. This applies to every one, rich and poor alike.”
Thanks to the efficient work of the Commission, fully seventy-five per cent. of the Belgians receiving food were able to pay for it. This was due to the clever financiering of Mr. Hoover and his committee, who managed, by an ingenious method, to raise the depreciated paper currency to par value.
Putting gift and purchase cargoes together there were delivered in a single month, “twenty-five thousand tons of wheat, thirty thousand tons of flour, eleven thousand tons of maize, fifteen hundred tons of rice, five hundred and forty-six tons of peas, four thousand tons of beans, one hundred and seven tons of potatoes, one hundred and twelve tons of salt, with thirty-six hundred tons of sundries.”
In the spring Antwerp and Brussels were feeding about two hundred and eighty thousand people twice a day. At least four million people are getting their food through the National Commission. Those who can pay for it do so. Food is given in the bread line to those who cannot pay. At first only workmen appeared in the line, then small shopkeepers, and later professional men.
West of the road from Antwerp to Mons the people are being fed. East of the road the Germans did not permit it during the winter. In April, however, it was arranged that the Commission should also feed Northern France. In June General von Bissing permitted the Commission to furnish grain for seed, to be planted and harvested by Belgian peasants for their own use. The report of the Commission for the first year of the war showed that for the people of Belgium and the 2,500,000 French people hemmed in behind the German battle front, an expenditure of $10,000,000 a month was required.
The despatch of a shipload of food every other day from America during the winter constituted the largest commissary that the world has ever seen. “The Fleet of Mercy is constantly making voyages.” Every cent collected in America for the purchase of food was spent in America. It is said that up to May 1st the United States made gifts amounting to about six million dollars. The American Relief Commission today has branches not only in the United States, Canada and Holland, but also in London and Belgium and France. From sixteen American seaports food has been sent direct to Belgium. Forty-eight States, the District of Columbia and Hawaii, organized Belgian Relief Committees, and endless sub-committees. Thirty-seven of the States of the Union are represented by the women’s section.
Queen Elizabeth, now called the “Wandering Queen,” sent this letter to thank the women of this Commission:
“It gives me great pleasure to accept the invitation which has been transmitted to me to become a patroness of the Women’s Section of the American Commission for Relief in Belgium. I wish to extend to the women of America the deep gratitude of the women of Belgium for the work which they are doing for my people. The food which your country is daily providing to our women and children comes like a ray of sunshine in the darkest hour in Belgium’s history. The Belgian women have fought a brave fight, and are still fighting for the common cause of human liberty, so dear to every American woman’s heart.
“Elizabeth.”
By May 1st the New York Belgian Fund amounted to more than a million dollars. California raised over a hundred thousand in a day. Chicago has been conspicuous with large gifts. Kansas sent a great quantity of flour, and Mr. Wanamaker of Philadelphia shipped cargoes worth half a million dollars.
The New England Committee believes that its results up to May first are substantially as follows: Cash collected, $300,000; value of goods collected, $100,000; money sent from New England direct to New York, $50,000; and goods sent to New York, about $50,000. The Kermesse Flamande cleared $15,000, and Madame Vandervelde’s meetings raised about $14,000 in Boston alone. Three ship-loads of food and clothing left Boston harbour.
The Harpalyce was the first and largest of the ships. She sailed on January 7th, reaching Rotterdam the 23d. On April 10th, while on another voyage, she was torpedoed in the North Sea. She carried a crew of fifty-three men, twenty-six of whom were drowned, among them the captain, whom we knew personally.
The work of Madame Vandervelde while she was in this country deserves special mention. She is an English woman, the wife of Emile Vandervelde, the leader of the Socialists in Belgium. He had several times been offered a place in the Cabinet but had refused. When the war broke out, however, feeling that he could be of real service to his country, he became one of the Ministers of State. He came with the Minister of Justice, Monsieur Carton de Wiart, an old friend of ours, and several others, as one of a commission sent to America in the autumn of 1914. Madame Vandervelde followed shortly to make a lecture tour in the United States. We found her a charming and well-educated woman, and a speaker of unusual power. She came to this country in a spirit of splendid patriotism for the sake of helping Belgium.
Before the food question became urgent, she asked for money to help the Belgian refugees return to their homes. But this did not seem wise, as we shall see from a report quoted below, so the money that she collected was turned into food.
“For example, the towns Waelhem, Malines, Duffel, and Lierre, are reduced practically to ruins and are certainly not in a condition to receive back more than one-third of their ordinary population. There is, moreover, a smell of decay in the air, which probably proceeds from corpses buried in the ruins, which may, at any time, breed a pestilence. To send people back to their homes when those homes no longer exist, I believe to be cruel. Visé and Tamines and, I suppose, ten or a dozen other small towns in Belgium, are practically in the same condition as those I visited, desolate and uninhabitable, half of their houses wrecked, many scattered and isolated farmhouses practically destroyed, and a considerable portion of the land under cultivation laid waste, either by military operations or by inundation for defense.
“There is no work. The factories are closed because they have no raw material, coal, or petrol, and because they have no markets. And yet war taxes are falling with hideous pressure upon a people whose hands are empty, whose workshops are closed, whose fields are idle, whose cattle have been taken.”
In one of her lectures Madame Vandervelde said: “The sight of the poor refugees streaming into Antwerp from Louvain and Malines, women with babies in their arms, older children clinging to their skirts, men wheeling their decrepit fathers in wheelbarrows or helping along a crippled brother or son, is more pitiful than any words can express.”
From the reports in the daily papers, Madame Vandervelde said, one knows little of the overwhelming nature of the tragedy. She told many interesting stories of the land which had been ravaged by the horrors of war, and the murderous raids of the Zeppelins.
Her mission was not a political one; it was a plea for help. She arrived in September, bringing good letters of introduction. Wherever she spoke—in private houses on Long Island, at Beverly, Mass., or Dublin, New Hampshire, or in cities—she was so attractive, and her appeal was so pathetic, that people wept and opened their pocketbooks. In the big cities of Canada she spoke in halls and churches, and was most enthusiastically received. From Syracuse she went to Chicago, also to St. Paul and Minneapolis, starting committees where they did not already exist. At Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston she was especially successful in raising money. She was present at the sailing of several of the food ships, when hundreds of people crowded the docks, speeches were made, and patriotic music played.
Three thousand people attended the mass meeting at Tremont Temple, in Boston, and over a thousand were turned away. She went to Providence and then to New Haven, where she was introduced by ex-President Taft. She was introduced in Boston by Bishop Lawrence, and in Baltimore by Cardinal Gibbons. A large meeting was held for her in Cooper Union Hall in New York. During her stay in Washington she visited the Belgian Minister and his wife. Where committees were already started, she turned over the money she made to them. She sailed for Europe on the third of April, having raised about three hundred thousand dollars.
Her last lecture before sailing contained these words: “We, the Allies, do not want peace. We appreciate the well meaning, high minded, noble Americans who are planning a conference at your national capital whereby the neutral nations shall decide on some peace plan to be submitted to the belligerent nations without armistice, but we cannot hear of peace at this or any other time until Prussian army caste has been wiped from the face of Europe. We want peace, but only peace with honour, and lasting peace. Peace now, before militarism has been conquered, will not be lasting peace. At the most, it would only be for five or six years, until Prussian militarism could reconstruct itself, and then the whole reign of terror for all Europe would begin again. We can scarcely understand an attitude that would even suggest peace at this time. Such an attitude is embarrassing.”
Just as Madame Vendervelde left the country, Madame Depage arrived to take her place. She had had experience in the Balkan War, when she accompanied her husband to Constantinople and acted as an auxiliary nurse. She directed the equipment of the hospital and within a very short time had turned the building into one of the best military hospitals in Europe. During the present war she has aided in the establishment of a large number of military hospitals, not only in Brussels but also in other Belgian cities. When Brussels was taken the Germans seized the hospitals and devoted them to their own uses. The Governor-General of Belgium issued a decree breaking up the organization of the Belgian Red Cross. All the funds were seized, and the archives were handed over to a German officer, who was appointed to carry on the work. It is said that forty thousand dollars’ worth of Red Cross supplies was taken over. As the National Belgian Headquarters of the Red Cross were in Brussels, the heads of the organization were temporarily cut off from the army.
Dr. Depage stayed with the King while his wife remained in the capital until she received word from him that she was needed at the front. She made her way to Holland, then to England, and then to Calais. Her husband was at that time in charge of the Gendarme Ambulance. He gave her some orderlies and told her to proceed to La Panne and select a site for a military hospital. She found an empty hotel, and had things ready with three hundred beds when the Doctor arrived from Calais to take charge. Now there are a thousand beds, and he has a large corps of assistants.
As Belgium was not receiving American Red Cross supplies, for the simple reason that it seemed impossible to reach their headquarters, Madame Depage came to this country to solve the difficulty. She was here only a short time, but obtained a hundred thousand dollars by her lectures. Our American Red Cross had previously contributed thirty thousand dollars through the Belgian Relief Commission, and gave Madame Depage thirteen thousand more, besides promising six surgeons and twenty-four nurses to Belgium, furnishing two field hospitals and paying for their maintenance for six months. The total gifts of the American Red Cross organization have amounted to about $100,000. Fortunately the money that Madame Depage raised was deposited here, for this brave, executive woman went down on the Lusitania.
Footnotes
1 The story of the de Buisseret misfortunes since the war began has been a sad one, like that of many of the Belgian aristocracy. Their château, which we visited so often, has been destroyed, Madame de Buisseret has died, and the children are scattered.
2 From “The Great Duke.”
3 Roland de Marès (Le Temps).
4 Max Rooses.
5 The description of technique is quoted from Hunter’s “Tapestries.”
6 “Gems of Modern Belgian Art.”
7 Conway.
8 Conway.
9 Translated by Edward Thomas.
10 The best authorities, of course, on the causes of the war are:
The English White Paper
The German White Book The Belgian Gray Book
The Russian Yellow Book
The Austrian Red Book
The French Yellow Book
11 From the German White Book.
12 From “How Belgium Saved Europe,” by Dr. Charles Sarolea—as is much of the following.
13 From the volume of poems entitled “The Song of the Guns,” by Herbert Kaufman.
14 Note:—I have heard the spreading of the Cardinal’s letter by Mme. Carton de Wiart was one of the reasons of her arrest, trial and imprisonment.
15 The young English lady who took this letter to Roehampton was made a prisoner, from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon. Although she had to show the letter, the German officials let her go, as it was unimportant, but her husband was taken prisoner. They asked him his age, and told him that they needed soldiers, and that he might be of use to them.
16 The Belgian army retired from Antwerp to La Panne.
17 I am indebted to the official bulletin of the Commission for Relief in Belgium for much of the following material.