Englishman in Brussels who is easy in his mind and need not worry.
* * * * *
_Tuesday, November 24th._--Another day of rush without getting very far.
The Germans decided this morning that they would arrest Felix Jeffes,
the British Vice-Consul, so I had the pleasant task of telling him that
he was wanted. I am to go for him to-morrow morning and take him to the
École Militaire with his compatriots. This job of policeman does not
appeal to me, even if it is solely to save our friends the humiliation
of being taken through the streets by the Germans.
* * * * *
_November 25th._--Had a _pleasant_ day.
Had arrangements made with Jeffes to go with him to the École Militaire
at 11 o'clock and turn him over to his jailer. The Minister went up with
von der Lancken to see the Englishmen and be there when Jeffes arrived,
so as to show a friendly interest in his being well treated.
I went around to the Consulate on time, and found that, through a
misunderstanding, Jeffes had made no preparations for going, having been
assured that another attempt would be made to get him off. I pointed out
that the Minister had given his word of honour that Jeffes should be
there, and that he would be left in a very unpleasant and annoying
position if we did not turn up as promised. Jeffes was perfectly ready,
although not willing to go. I went to the École Militaire and explained
to von der Lancken that Jeffes' failure to appear was due to a mistake,
and asked that he be given time to straighten out his accounts and come
later in the day or to-morrow morning. The answer was that he must come
some time during the day. The Consul-General went straight to von
Lüttwitz with Jeffes, made a great plea on the score of his health or
lack of it, and got his time extended until he could be given a medical
examination by the military authorities. Late in the afternoon he was
looked over and told to go home and be quiet, that he would probably not
be wanted, but that if anything came up, they would communicate with him
further.
* * * * *
_Brussels, November 27, 1914._--More busy days. Each day we swear that
we will stop work early and go out to play. Each day we sit at our
desks, and darkness comes down upon us, and we do not get away until
nearly eight o'clock. "Thanksgiving Day" was no exception, and to-day we
are going through the same old performance. Yesterday, by strenuous
work, I got down to swept bunkers and had a good prospect of an easy
day. Instead of that there has been a deluge of Consuls, mail,
telegrams, and excited callers, and we are snowed under a heap of work
it will take several days to get out of the way.
We came back to them with a bump, however, when Nasmith came to my flat
at midnight to say that Jeffes had been arrested. And it was done in the
usual charming manner. In the course of the afternoon, the
Consul-General got a note asking him to go to headquarters "to talk over
the case of Mr. Jeffes." It asked also that Jeffes accompany the
Consul-General "to the conference." When they arrived it was announced
that Jeffes was under arrest and to be sent immediately to the École
Militaire. The Consul-General, like the Minister, on the occasion of his
visit, was placed in the position of having lured his friend into jail.
He protested vigorously, but was not even allowed to accompany Jeffes to
the École Militaire. It was only after some heated argument that Jeffes
was allowed five minutes at home, under guard, to get a few belongings
together to take with him. The Consul-General is furious, and so am I
when I remember how decently the German Vice-Consul here was treated
when the war broke out.
Early in the week Jack is to be sent down to Mons, to bring out some
English nurses who have been there nursing the British wounded. Two of
them, Miss Hozier and Miss Angela Manners, were in yesterday. They have
been working hard during the past three months and are now ready to go
back to England if we can arrange for passports.
Under the date of November 26th, General von Kraewel announces that he
has succeeded Baron von Lüttwitz, who has been transferred to the army
at the front.
Hoover arrived from London this afternoon accompanied by Shaler and by
Dr. Rose, Henry James, Jr., and Mr. Bicknell of the Rockefeller
Foundation, who have come to look into conditions. There is plenty for
them to see, and we shall do our best to help them see it.
As we learned from a confidential source, several days ago, there has
been a big shake-up in the Government here. Both von der Goltz and von
Lüttwitz have gone and have been replaced--the first by Freiherr von
Bissing, and the latter by General von Kraewel. There are several
explanations for the changes, but we don't yet know what they mean.
* * * * *
_Brussels, December 2, 1914._--We have had a hectic time. Hoover arrived
on Sunday evening, accompanied by Shaler and by three representatives of
the Rockefeller Foundation. We have had a steady rush of meetings,
conferences, etc., and Hoover and Shaler pulled out early this morning.
There is not much relief in sight, however, for to-morrow morning at the
crack of dawn, I expect to start off on a tour of Belgium, to show the
Rockefeller people what conditions really are. We shall be gone for
several days and shall cover pretty well the whole country.
Yesterday morning I got Jack off to Mons to bring back the British
nurses. Everything in the way of passports and arrangements with the
military authorities had been made, and he went away in high spirits for
a little jaunt by himself. This morning at half-past three o'clock he
rang the doorbell and came bristling in, the maddest man I have seen in
a long time. He had suffered everything that could be thought of in the
way of insult and indignity, and to make it worse, had been obliged to
stand by and watch some brutes insult the girls he was sent down to
protect. When he arrived at Mons he got the nurses together and took
them to the headquarters, where he explained that he had been sent down
by the Minister with the consent of the German authorities, to bring the
nurses to Brussels. This was stated in writing on the passport given him
by the German authorities here. Instead of the polite reception he had
expected, the German officer, acting for the Commandant, turned on him
and told him that the nurses were to be arrested, and could not go to
Brussels. Then, by way of afterthought, he decided to arrest Jack and
had him placed under guard on a long bench in the headquarters, where he
was kept for three hours. Luckily, an old gentleman of the town who knew
the nurses, came in on some errand, and before they could be shut up,
they contrived to tell him what the situation was and ask him to get
word to the Legation. Right away after this the three women were taken
out and put in the fourth-class cells of the military prison, that is,
in the same rooms with common criminals. Jack was left in the guard
room. The old gentleman, who had come in, rushed off to the Burgomaster
and got him stirred up about the case, although he was loath to do
anything, as he _knew_ that a representative of the American Legation
could not be arrested. Finally he did come around to headquarters, and
after a long row with the Adjutant, they got Jack released and fitted
out with a _laisser-passer_ to return to Brussels. He was insulted in
good shape, and told that if he came back again, sent by the Minister or
by anybody else, he would be chucked into jail and stay there. Before
the nurses were taken down to their prison, the Adjutant shook his fist
in Miss Hozier's face, and told her that they were going to give her a
good lesson, so that the English should have a taste of the sort of
treatment they were meting out to German nurses and doctors that fell
into their hands.
The Mayor and Aldermen took Jack in charge when he was released, and
kept him in one of their homes until time for the train to leave for
Brussels at midnight. They were convinced that he would be arrested
again at the station, but he did get off in a car filled with sick
soldiers and arrived here without mishap at three o'clock or a little
after.
I went over to see von der Lancken the first thing in the morning, and
told him the whole story, in order that he might be thinking over what
he was going to do about it before the Minister went over to see him at
eleven. The Minister said his say in plain language, and got a promise
that steps would be taken at once to get the girls out of prison and
have them brought to Brussels. Later in the day von der Lancken came
through with the information that the action of the authorities at Mons
was "_due to a misunderstanding_," and that everything was lovely now.
We suppose that the girls will be here to-morrow; if not, inquiries will
be made and the Minister will probably go down himself.
Yesterday morning we spent visiting soup kitchens, milk stations, and
the distributing centres for supplying old clothes to the poor. The
whole thing is under one organisation and most wonderfully handled. It
is probably the biggest thing of the sort that has ever been undertaken
and is being done magnificently.
It is a curious thing to watch the Commission grow. It started as
nothing but a group of American mining engineers, with the sympathetic
aid of some of our diplomatic representatives and the good-will of the
neutral world. It is rapidly growing into a powerful international
entity, negotiating agreements with the Great Powers of Europe, enjoying
rights that no Government enjoys, and as the warring governments come to
understand its sincerity and honesty, gaining influence and authority
day by day.
There is no explanation of the departure of von der Goltz. His successor
has come out with a proclamation in three lines, as follows:
His Majesty, the Emperor and King, having deigned to appoint me
Governor-General in Belgium, I have to-day assumed the direction of
affairs.
BARON VON BISSING.
Brussels, December 3, 1914.
* * * * *
_Brussels, Sunday, December 6, 1914._--We got away at eight o'clock on
Thursday morning, in three cars from the Palace Hotel. We were four cars
when we started, but fifty feet from the door the leading car broke down
and could not be started, so we rearranged ourselves and left the wreck
behind. The party was composed of the three Rockefeller
representatives, Dr. Rose, Mr. Bicknell, and Henry James, Jr., Monsieur
Francqui, Josse Allard, Jack and I.
It was rainy and cold, but we made good time to Louvain and stopped at
the Hôtel de Ville. Professor Neerincxs, of the University, took up the
duties of Burgomaster when the Germans shipped the real one away. He
speaks perfect English, and led the crowd around the town with the rush
and energy of a Cook's tourist agent. He took us first through the
Cathedral, and showed us in detail things that we could not have seen if
we had gone at it alone. Then around to the library and some of the
other sights of particular interest, and finally for a spin through the
city, to see the damage to the residence district. This was a most
interesting beginning, and made a good deal of an impression on our
people. They asked questions about the work being done by the people
toward cleaning up the ruins of the town and trying to arrange
make-shift shelters to live in during the winter. The Mayor is a man of
real force of character, and has accomplished marvels under the greatest
difficulties.
From Louvain we cut away to the northeast to Aerschot, where we took a
quick look at the welter of ruin and struck out to the west through
Diest and Haelen, which I saw on my first trip with Frederick Palmer
before there was anything done to them.
We got to Liège about one o'clock and had lunch in a restaurant
downtown, where we were joined by Jackson, our delegate sent down there
to supervise the distribution of food for the Commission. He told us a
lot about the difficulties and incidents of his work, and some details
of which we had to think. He is the first delegate we have sent to
outlying cities, and is up on his toes with interest. A lot more have
already sailed from New York, and will soon be here. They are to be
spread all over the country in the principal centres, some to stay in
the big cities and watch local conditions, and others to travel about
their districts and keep track of the needs of the different villages.
It is all working out a lot better than we had hoped for, and we have
good reason to be pleased. Our chief annoyance is that every time things
get into a comfortable state, some idiot starts the story either in
England or America that the Germans have begun to seize foodstuffs
consigned to us. Then we have to issue statements and get off telegrams,
and get renewed assurances from the German authorities and make
ourselves a general nuisance to everybody concerned. If we can choke off
such idiots, our work will be a lot easier.
The Burgomaster came into the restaurant to find us, and offered to go
on with us to Visé, to show us the town, and we were glad to have him,
as he knows the place like the palm of his hand.
I had been through Visé twice, and had marvelled at the completeness of
the destruction, but had really had no idea of what it was. It was a
town of about forty-five hundred souls, built on the side of a pretty
hill overlooking the Meuse. There are only two or three houses left. We
saw one old man, two children and a cat in the place. Where the others
are, nobody knows. The old man was well over sixty, and had that
afternoon been put off a train from Germany, where he had been as a
prisoner of war since the middle of August. He had KRIEGSGEFANGENER
MUNSTER stencilled on his coat, front and back, so that there could be
no doubt as to who he was. He was standing in the street with the tears
rolling down his cheeks and did not know where to go; he had spent the
day wandering about the neighbouring villages trying to find news of his
wife, and had just learned that she had died a month or more ago. It was
getting dark, and to see this poor old chap standing in the midst of
this welter of ruin without a chick or child or place to lay his
head.... It caught our companions hard, and they loaded the old man up
with bank-notes, which was about all that anybody could do for him and
then we went our way. We wandered through street after street of ruined
houses, sometimes whole blocks together where there were not enough
walls left to make even temporary shelters.
Near the station we were shown a shallow grave dug just in front of a
house. We were told who filled the grave--an old chap of over sixty. He
had been made to dig his own grave, and then was tied to a young tree
and shot. The bullets cut the tree in two just a little above the height
of his waist, and the low wall behind was full of bullet holes.
As nearly as we can learn, the Germans appear to have come through the
town on their way toward Liège. Nothing was supposed to have happened
then, but on the 15th, 16th and 17th, troops came back from Liège and
systematically reduced the place to ruins and dispersed the population.
It was clear that the fires were all set, and there were no evidence of
street fighting. It is said that some two hundred civilians were shot,
and seven hundred men bundled aboard trains and sent back to Germany as
prisoners of war--harmless people like the old chap we saw.
[Illustration: Von Bulow's greeting to the people of Liège
ORDRE
A LA POPULATION LIÈGEOISE
La population d'Andenne, après avoir témoigné des intentions
pacifiques à légard de nos troupes, les a attaquées de la façon la
plus traîtresse. Avec mon autorisation, le général qui commandait
ces troupes a mis la ville en cendres et a fait fusiller 110
personnes.
Je porte ce fait à la connaissance de la Villé de Liège pour que ses
habitants sachent à quel sort ils peuvent s'attandre s'ils prennent
une attitude semblable.
Liège, le 22 Août 1914
Général von BULOW.
Translation:
ORDER TO THE POPULATION OF LIÈGE
The population of Andenne, after manifesting peaceful intentions
toward our troops, attacked them in the most treacherous manner.
With my authorization the general who commanded these troops has
reduced the town to ashes and has shot 110 persons.
I bring this fact to the knowledge of the City of Liège so that its
people may understand the fate which awaits them if they assume a
like attitude.]
[Illustration: How the simple pleasures of the German soldier were
restricted.
DIESES HAUS IST ZU SCHÜTZEN
Es ist streng verboten, ohne Genehmigung der Kommandantur, Haüser zu
betreden oder in Brand zu setzen.
Die Etappen-Kommandantur.
Translation:
THIS HOUSE IS TO BE PROTECTED
It is strictly forbidden to enter houses or set them on fire without
the permission of the Kommandantur]
The Burgomaster set out on foot to walk back three kilometers and catch
a tram to Liège, and we went southeast to Dalhem, where we spent the
night at the Château de Dalhem, on a hill overlooking the picturesque
little village snuggled in the bottom of the valley. It was off the main
line of march, and had not suffered. The château belongs to General
Thyss, who was a great friend of the late King Leopold. He was not
there, but the place was being protected by a splendid old dragon in the
shape of a German governess who had been with the family for over thirty
years, and refused to leave when the war broke out. She had been obliged
to lodge a crowd of German officers and some of their men, but held them
down with an iron hand, kept them from doing any damage and made them
pay for every egg and every bottle of wine they had. We arrived after
dark and threw the place into a panic of fear, but Monsieur Francqui
soon reassured everybody, and the place was lighted up and placed at our
disposal in short order.
Although it was pitch dark when we arrived, it was only half past four
and we set out on foot to stretch a little. The moon came out and
lighted our way through the country roads. We tramped for a couple of
hours through all sorts of little towns and villages and groups of
houses, some of them wiped out and some hardly touched.
General Thyss's cellars are famous, and with our dinner of soup and
bacon and eggs, we had some of the finest Burgundy I have ever tasted.
Early to bed so that we could be up and off at daybreak.
Friday morning we were away early, and made for Herve, where I had never
been before. It is a ruin with a few natives and a lot of Landsturm
left. We talked to some peasants and to an old priest who gave us
something to think about in their stories of happenings there during and
after the occupation of their homes. From there to Liège, by way of a
lot of little villages whose names I don't remember, but whose condition
was pretty bad, past the fort of Fléron and the defensive works that are
being put up there.
Wasted some time trying to get gasoline for the other motors, and then
the long stretch to Namur, down the valley of the Meuse, and stopped
long enough for a look at Andennes, my second visit to the place.
In Andenne and Seilles (a little village across the Meuse) the Germans
did a thorough job. They killed about three hundred people and burned
about the same number of houses. Most of the houses had been looted
systematically. According to the stories of those inhabitants who
remain, there was a reign of terror for about a week, during which the
Germans rendered themselves guilty of every sort of atrocity and
barbarity. They are all most positive that there was no firing upon the
German troops by the civil population. It seems to be generally believed
that the massacre was due to resistance of retiring Belgian troops and
the destruction of bridges and tunnels to cover their retreat. Whatever
the provocation, the behaviour of the Germans was that of savages. We
were shown photographs showing the corpses of some of those killed. It
was to be inferred that they had been wantonly mutilated.
Had lunch at an hotel across the street from the station. After a hasty
lunch we made off to Dinant, still following the Meuse. The thin line of
houses down the course of the river were thinner than they were a few
months ago, and there were signs of suffering and distress everywhere. I
had never been to Dinant before, but had seen pictures of it and thought
I had an idea of what we were going to see. But the pictures did not
give a hint of the horror of the place. The little town, which must have
been a gem, nestled at the foot of a huge gray cliff, crowned with the
obsolete fort, which was not used or attacked. The town is _gone_. Part
of the church is standing, and the walls of a number of buildings, but
for the most part, there is nothing but a mess of scattered bricks to
show where the houses had stood. And why it was done, we were not able
to learn, for everybody there says that there was no fighting in the
town itself. We heard stories, too, and such stories that they can
hardly be put on paper. Our three guests were more and more impressed as
we went on. The bridge was blown up and had fallen into the river, and
as we had little time to make the rest of our day's journey, we did not
wait to cross by the emergency bridge farther up the river. While we
were standing talking to a schoolmaster and his father by the destroyed
bridge, seven big huskies with rifles and fixed bayonets came through,
leading an old man and a woman who had been found with a camera in
their possession. At first there was no objection raised to the taking
of photographs, but now our friends are getting a little touchy about
it, and lock up anybody silly enough to get caught with kodaks or
cameras.
According to what we were told, the Germans entered the town from the
direction of Ciney, on the evening of August 21st, and began firing into
the windows of the houses. The Germans admit this, but say that there
were French troops in the town and this was the only way they could get
them out. A few people were killed, but there was nothing that evening
in the nature of a general massacre. Although the next day was
comparatively quiet, a good part of the population took refuge in the
surrounding hills.
On Sunday morning, the 23rd, the German troops set out to pillage and
shoot. They drove the people into the street, and set fire to their
houses. Those who tried to run away were shot down in their tracks. The
congregation was taken from the church, and fifty of the men were shot.
All the civilians who could be rounded up were driven into the big
square and kept there until evening. About six o'clock the women were
lined up on one side of the square and kept in line by soldiers. On the
other side, the men were lined up along a wall, in two rows, the first
kneeling. Then, under command of an officer, two volleys were fired into
them. The dead and wounded were left together until the Germans got
round to burying them, when practically all were dead. This was only one
of several wholesale executions. The Germans do not seem to contradict
the essential facts, but merely put forward the plea that most of the
damage was incidental to the fighting which took place between the armed
forces. Altogether more than eight hundred people were killed. Six
hundred and twelve have been identified and given burial. Others were
not recognisable. I have one of the lists which are still to be had,
although the Germans have ordered all copies returned to them. Those
killed ranged in age from Félix Fivet, aged three weeks, to an old woman
named Jadot, who was eighty. But then Félix probably fired on the German
troops.
[Illustration:
AUX HABITANTS DE LA BELGIQUE
Le Maréchal Von der Goltz fait connaître aux Populations de Belgique
qu'il est informé par les Généraux Commandants les troupes
d'occupation sur le territoire français, que le choléra sévit avec
intensité dans les troupes alliées, et qu'il y a le plus grand
danger à franchir ces lignes, ou à pénétrer dans le territoire
ennemi
Nous invitons les Populations de Belgique à ne pas entreìndre cet
avis, et ceux qui croiraient ne pas devoir se soumettre à cet avis,
seront traduits devant les Officiers de la Justice Impériale, et
nous les prévenons que la peine peut-être celle de mort.
Maréchal Von der Goltz
Septembre 1914
Translation: