A LONG HANDSHAKE THE FIRST GREETING; THEN THEY DROVE ACROSS THE
BELGIAN FRONTIER.
The London _Daily Mail_ correspondent sends the following dispatch
from Dunkirk, the date being omitted:
"There was a historic incident on the roadside in Flanders to-day
when King George met King Albert. The King of the Belgians, as the
host, was first at the rendezvous. He was dressed in his usual quiet
uniform of dark blue.
"As he alighted from his motor and walked toward some old cottages
here, he waited, and exchanged kindly words with some Belgian
soldiers who came out of a neighboring inn to touch their hats to
their monarch.
"Noon struck from an old clock tower near at hand, and a moment
later a motor cyclist flying the Union Jack was buzzing along the
road toward ----. Behind were three black limousine cars, all flying
Union Jacks, and behind them was a second motor cyclist.
"The cars and cyclists stopped, and from the first motor came King
George and the Prince of Wales with him. He wore a khaki uniform,
with a scarlet band round his hat. He looked fit and well.
"The two kings moved forward with outstretched hands to greet each
other there in the muddy road with none but a few officers, a few
soldiers, and simple villagers looking on.
"Upon a canal barge on the water alongside the road a woman was
hanging out her washing on the mainmast and boom. All she saw was
two men shaking hands, but there was quiet earnestness about that
greeting. The handshake was long and firm, and the accompanying
smiles like those of men who meet on serious occasions.
"Their first talk was not long. After returning the salute of
a soldier, who had come up close to look on, they entered King
Albert's motor car and passed on over the frontier into the little
remnant of Belgium that still remains out of the enemy's clutches.
"The two kings stayed a short time to review the troops, Belgian and
others, drawn up in the village square, and then the monarchs drove
on together to here. They dined and talked in friendly intimacy of
the strange happenings that had befallen the kingdoms of both and of
the great fights that have been fought."
* * * * *
Fifteen hundred British men and officers are in the base hospital
at Boulogne suffering from frozen feet. Fully one thousand of this
number must have one or both feet severed, owing to the deadening of
the nerves, which makes futile all attempts at treatment. Chilblains
and frostbites have been depleting the ranks worse than bullets and
shrapnel, and once a man's foot is frozen he is through, as far as
fighting is concerned, for the rest of the war.
* * * * *
Says one British officer now in the hospital: "From the time I
arrived at the front, three weeks ago, until I arrived at the
hospital last night, I have not been warm for one moment."
* * * * *
While the men are away at the war, the Women's Freedom League of
London has formed a corps of policewomen for duty on the streets, at
railway stations and in public parks. The women have organized under
the name of "Women Police Volunteers."
* * * * *
The throne of Egypt is going begging. Great Britain and the native
government are finding it impossible to induce any of the native
princes to accept it. It is now proposed to make the country a
separate kingdom, independent of Turkey.
* * * * *
One arms and ammunition company in this country is erecting a
million-dollar building to supply the demand for its products
created by the European war. This company has a contract that calls
for the manufacture of fifteen hundred rifles per day.
* * * * *
Many of the Allied soldiers are in the hospitals "wounded without
wounds." They have been so dazed by the shock of exploding shells
that it was deemed best to invalid them for a while. In some cases
the shells destroy a man's memory. One corporal was brought in
who remembered his name and the events preceding the war, but has
utterly forgotten anything subsequent to the mobilization. He even
refused to believe a story of his own heroism.
* * * * *
The spy scare in London forced many innocent men out of the country.
Adolph Boehm, who sold newspapers in Piccadilly for more than thirty
years, was forced to flee unless he wished to stand trial for being
a German spy.