10 
LAND & WATER 
August 2, 1917. 
and there ar. no promises as to when we shall seethem.. The 
news in the local papers is scarce and doubtful, and I hope 
for a word from Paris. - .■•i 
Wor'' has just come in that the Government has seized 
the suj.plies of bread, rice, and beans, and will fix prices -for 
the present. That is a sensible and steadying thing and 
should have a good effect. 
On the way back from the Legation this evening I saw • 
Below, the German Minister, driving home from the Foreign 
Office to his Legation. He passed close to me, and I saw 
that the perspiration was standing out on his forehead. He 
held his hat in his hand and puffed at a cigarette like a 
mechanical tov, blowing out jerky clouds of smoke. He 
looked neither'to left nor right and failed to give me his usual 
ceremonious bow. He is evidently not at ease about the 
situation, although he continues to figure in the newspapers as 
stating that all is well, that Germany has no intention of 
setting foot on Belgian soil, and that all Belgium has to do is 
to keep calm. 
The Ultimatum 
August yd, 1914. — According to the news which was given 
me when I got out of bed this morning, the German Minister 
last night presented to the Belgian Government an ultimatum 
demanding the right to send German troops across Belgium 
to attack France. He was evidently returning from this 
pleasant duty when I saw him last night, for the ultimatum 
seems to have been presented at seven o'clock. The King 
presided over a Cabinet Council which sat all night, and 
when the twelve hours given by the ultimatum had expired at 
seven this morning, a flat refusal was sent to the German 
Legation. Arrangements were got under way as the Council 
sat to defend the frontiers of the country against aggression. 
During the night the garrison left the town and the Garde 
Civique came on duty to police the town. 
The French Minister came in this morning and asked us 
whether we would take over the protection of French inter- 
ests in case he was obliged to leave Brussels. That, of course, 
will require permission from Washington, which will be asked 
for without delay. 
The influx of callers was greater to-day than at any time 
so far, and we were fairly swamped. Miss L came in 
and worked like a Trojan taking passport applications and 
jollying along the women who wanted to be told that the 
Germans would not kill them even when they got to Brussels. 
She is a godsend to us. 
Monsieur de Leval, the Belgian lawyer, who for ten years 
has been the legal counsellor of the Legation, came in and 
brought some good clerks with him. He also hung up his 
hat and went to work, making all sorts of calls at the Foreign 
Office, seeing callers, and going about to the different Lega- 
tions. Granville Fortescue came in from Ostend, and I 
should have put him to work, but that he had plans of his 
own, and has decided to blossom forth as a war correspondent. 
He is all for getting to the " front " if any. 
Just to see what would happen I went to the telephone 
after lunch and asked to be put through to the Embassy in 
London. , To my surprise I got the connection in a few minutes 
and had a talk with Bell (the second Secretary.) The 
Cabinet had been sitting since eleven this morning, but had 
announced no decision. I telephoned him again this evening 
and got the same reply. Bell said that they had several 
hundred people in the chancery, and were preparing for a 
heavy blow. 
As nearly as we can make out the Germans have sent pa- 
trols into Belgian territory, but there have been no actual 
operations so far. All day long we have been getting stories 
to the effect that there has been a battle at Vise, and that 
fifteen hundred Belgians had been killed ; later it was stated 
that they had driven the Germans back with heavy losses. 
The net result is that at the end of the day we know little 
more than we did this morning. 
Parliament is summoned to meet in special session to-morrow 
morning to hear what the King has to say about the German 
ultimatum. It will be an interesting sight. Parliament 
has long been rent with most bitter factional quarrels, but 
I hear that all these are to be forgotten, and that all parties. 
Socialists included, are to rally round the throne in a great 
demonstration of loyalty. 
August ,^th. — Yesterday morning we got about early and 
made for the Chamber of Deputies to hear the King's speech. 
The Minister and I walked over together and met a few 
straggling colleagues headed in the same direction. Most 
of them had got there ahead of us and the galleries were all 
jammed. The Rue Royale from the Palace around the park to 
the Parliament building was packed with people, held in check 
by the Garde Civique. There was a buzz as of a thousand bees, 
and every face was ablaze— /Ae look of a people who have been 
trampled on {or hundreds of years and have not learned to submit. 
When I saw how crowded the galleries were I thought I 
would not push, so resigned myself to missing the speech 
and went out on to a bajcony with Webber, of the British 
Legation, to see the arri\fal of the King and Queen. We had 
the balcony to ourselves, as everybody jclse was inside fight- 
ing for a place in the galleries to hear the speech. 
When the King and Queen finally left the Palace, we knew 
it from a roar of cheering thkt came surging across the Park. 
The little procession came along at a smart trot, and although 
it was hidden from us by the trees, we could follow its pro- 
gress by the steadily advancing roaring of the mob. When 
they turned from the Rue Royale into the Rue de la Loi, the 
crowd in front of the Parliament buildings took up the cheering 
in a way to make the windows rattle. 
First came the staff of the King, and members of his house- 
hold. Then the Queen, accompanied by the royal children 
in an open daumont. The cheering for the Queen was full- 
throated and with no sign of doubt because of her Bavarian 
birth and upbringing — she is looked on as a Belgian Queen 
and nothing else. 
After the Queen came a carriage or two with members of 
the Royal family and the Court. Finally, the King on horse- 
back. He was in the field uniform of a lieutenant-general 
with no decorations, and none of the ceremonial trappings 
usual on such occasions as a speech from the Throne. He 
was followed by a few members of his staff who also looked 
as though they were meant more for business than for dress 
parade. 
As the King drew rein and dismounted, the cheering burst 
forth with twice its former volume, and in a frantic demon- 
stration of loyalty, hats and sticks were thrown into the air. 
Two bands played on manfully, but we could hear only an 
occasional discord. 
Just as the King started into the building, an usher came out, 
touched me on the arm and said something, beckoning me 
to come inside. One of the galleries had been locked by mis- 
take but had now been opened, and Webber and I were re- 
warded for our modesty by being given the whole thing to 
ourselves. In a few. minutes the Bolivian Charge came in 
and joined us. Our places were not ten feet from the Throne, 
and we could not have been better placed. 
The King's Speech 
The Queen came in quietly from one side and took a throng 
to the left of the triburte, after acknowledging a roarine 
welcome from the members of the two Houses. When the 
cheering had subsided, the King walked in alone from the 
right, bowed gravely to the assembly and walked quickly to 
the dais above and behind the tribune. With a business- 
like gesture he tossed his cap on to the ledge before him and 
threw his white cotton gloves into it — then drew out his speech 
and read it. At first his voice was not very steady, but he 
soon controlled it, and read the speech to the end in a voice 
that was vibrating with emotion but without any oratory 
or heroics. He went straight to the vital need for union be- 
tween all factions and all parties, between the French, Flemish 
and W'alloon races, between Catholics, Liberals, and Socialists 
in a determined resistance to the attack upon Belgian inde- 
pendence. The House could contain itself only for a few 
minutes at a time, and as every point was driven home they 
burst into frantic cheering.' When the King, addressing 
himself directly to the Members of Parliament, said : " Are 
you determined, at any cost, to maintain the sacred heritage 
of our ancestors ? " the whole Chamber burst into a roar, and 
from the Socialists' side came cries of, "At any cost, by death 
if need be," 
It was simple and to the point — a manly speech, and as he 
delivered it he was a kingly figure, facing, for the sake of 
honour, what he kneiw to be the gravest danger that could 
ever come to ' his country and his people. When he had 
finished he bowed to the Queen, then to the Parliament, and 
then walked- quickly out of the room while the assembly 
roared again. The Senators and Deputies swarmed about 
the King on his way c^t, cheering and trying to shake him by 
the hand — and none were more at pains to voice their devotion 
than the Socialists. 
After he had gone, the Queen rose, bowed shyly to the as- 
sembly, and withdrew with the Royal children. She was 
given a rousing ovation as everybody realised the difficulty 
of her position, and was doubly anxious to show her all their 
confidence and affection. The whole occasion was moving, 
but when the little Queen acknowledged the ovation so shyly 
and so sadly and withdrew, the tears were pretty near the 
surface — my surface at any rate. 
F'or several minutes after the Queen withdrew the cheering 
continued. Suddenly a tense silence fell upon the room. M. 
de Broqucville, the Prime Minister, had mounted the tribune, 
and stood waiting for attention. He was clearly under great 
stress of emotion, and as the House settled itself to hear him 
