August 9, 1917 
LAJNU & WATER 
11 
I 
I 
ittttrs from a Itgatton 
By Hugh Gibson (First Secretary of the /American Legation in Brussels 
( 
TJwse tellers from a Legation which were begun in Land & 
Water last week were written home by Mr. Hugh Gibson, 
First Secretary of the 4»ierican Legation in Brussels at the begin- 
ning of tJie war. They are now published with the consent of 
the State Department of the United States. In the opening 
letters Mr. Gibson describes the events that followed on the 
declaration of war, his interviews with the German Minister 
in Brussels, and the State visit of the King of the Belgians to 
the Chamber of Deputies. At the request of the German Minister, 
the United Slates Legation took temporary charge of German 
subjects in Belgium, and it fell to Mr. Gibson's duly to arrange 
for the deportation of a number of them from Brussels by way 
of Holland. He had gathered together these German refugees 
at a building near the railway station. He continues : 
r^RUSSELS, August 6th— After starting the crowd into 
/^the station and seeing that there was going to be no 
-'-^ trouble, I set off with an officer of the Garde Civique 
'to see about other parties coming from some of tlie con- 
vents. They liad not waited for us, but were already 
moving, so tliat when we got back to the station tiiey 
tacked on to the end of the first party, and kept the stream 
flowing. . 
As fast as the trains were filled the signal was given, and 
they pulled out silently. 1 stood behind some of the Garde 
Civique and watched the crowd pour in. The Gardes did not 
know who 1 was, aside from the fact that my presence seemed 
to be countenanced by their officers, and so I overheard 
what they had to say. They were a decent lot, and kept 
saying : Mais c'esl malhenreitx tout de menu: ! Kegardez 
done ces pauvres gens. Ce n'esl pas de leur faule, and a lot 
more of that sort of thing. 
It takes a pretty fine spiritto be able to treat the enemy that 
way. A lot of people in the passing crowd spotted me, and 
stopped to say good-bye, or called out as they went by. 
It was pathetic to see' how grateful they were for the Jeast 
kind word. I never saw such a pathetic crowd in my life, 
and hope I never may again. They hurried along looking 
furtively to right and left, with the look of a rat that is in 
fear of his life. I have seldom pitied people more, for that 
sort of fear must be the most frightful there is— simple fear 
of physical violence.! 
To-day trains have been coming in all day with wounded 
from Liege and the lot —Belgian and Gennan— are being cared 
for by the Ked Cross. The Palace has been turqed into a hos- 
pital and the Queen has taken over the supervision of it. Nearly 
every big hotel in town luis turned its dining room into a ward 
and guests are required to have their meals in their rooms. 
Some of the big department stores have come up finely in 
outfitting hospitals and work rooms, clearing out their stocks 
and letting profits go hang for the time being. The Inter- 
national Harvester Company cleared out its offices here and 
installed twenty-five beds— informing the Ked Cross that it 
would take care of the running expenses as long as the 
war lasts. The hospital facilities have grown far faster 
than the wounded have come in, and there is an element of 
humour in the rush of eager women who go to the station 
and almost fight for the wounded as they are brought off the 
trains. 
A Truly German Message 
Sunday, Aug. 9th.— I got this far when the roof fell in 
last night. 
During the afternoon yesterday I got out to attend to a few 
odds and ends of errands— and as always happens when 
I go out things began to happen. I came back to find the 
Minister and Lcval wrestling with a big one. 
A curious telegram had come from the Hague quoting the 
text of a message which the German Government desired us 
to present to the Belgian Government. Here it is in trans- 
laf on, a truly German message : 
The fortress of I.if^pe ha"! been taken by assault after a brave 
ilefence. The German n<)vernm"nt must deeply regret tliat 
bloody encounters sh >nld have resulted from the attitude of 
the Jlcl(,'ian Govern mvnt towards Germany. Germany is 
not coming as an enemy into Belgium, it is only through the 
force of circumstances tliat she has liad, owing to the military 
in<:i-;ures of France, to take the grave decision of entering 
J'.i !'.;ium and <jccupying Liege as a base for her further military 
operations. Now that the Belgian army has uplield tlie 
honour of its arms by its heroic resistance to a very superior 
force, the German Government beg the King of the Belgians 
and the Belgian Government to spare Belgium further 
horrors of war. The German Government are ready for any 
compact with Belgium which can be reconciled with tlieir 
conflicts with France. (See No. 70). Germany once more 
gives her solemn assurance that it is not her "intention to 
appropriate Belgian territory to herself, and that such an 
intention is far from her thoughts. Germany is still ready 
to evacuate Belgium as soon as the state of war will allow her 
to do so. 
Of course wn were loath to present anything of the sort, 
but the thing had to be handled carefully. After some pow- 
wowing I went ovct to the Foreign Office with the message 
and saw Baron van der Elst. I told him seriously that we 
had received a very remarkable telegram which purported 
to contain a message from the German Government ; that 
it bore no marks of authenticity, and that we were not sure 
as to its source ; but that we felt that we should be lacking 
in frankness if we did ^lot show him what we had recei\ed. 
He seized the message and read it through, his amazement 
and anger growing with each line. When he had finished he 
gasped for a minute or two, and then led me into the next 
room, to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Davignon, to 
whom he translated the telegram aloud. When tliey had 
finished discussing the'message and I had a prettv clear idea as to 
the Belgian attitude toward the proposal — not that I had had 
any real doubt — I asked him : "If the American Minister had 
delivered this message what would have been its reception ?" 
Without an instant's hesitation M. Davignon replied : " 'We 
should have resented his action and should have declined to 
receive the communication." 
That was all I wanted to know and I was ready to go back 
to the Legation. 
I took Baron van der Elst home in the car and had the 
pleasure of seeing him explain who he was to several Gardes 
Civiques who held up the car from time to time. He was very 
good natured about it and only resented the interruptions to 
what he was trying to say. His son is in the army and he has 
had no news of him. As he got out of the car he remarked 
that if it were not so horrible the mere interest of events 
would be enough to make these days wonderful. , 
When I got back to the Legation and reported the result 
of my visit we got.to work and framed a telegram to Washing- 
ton giving thQ text of the German message, explaining that we ' 
had nothing to prove its authenticity and adding that we had 
reason to believe that the Belgian Government would not 
accept it. The same message was sent to the Hague. This 
pleasant exercise with the code kept us going until four in the 
morning. 
Belgium's Indignation 1 
The king to-day received through other channels the 
message from the German Emperor in regard to peace 
which we declined to transmit. I have not seen its text, but 
hear it is practically identical with the message sent us, 
asking the King to name his conditions for the evacuation of 
Liege and the abandonment of his allies so that Germany 
may be entirely free of Belgian opposition in her further 
operations against France. I have heard among Belgians 
only the most indignant comments on the proposal and look 
forward with interest to seeing the answer of the King which 
should appear to-morrow. 
The town is most warlike in appearance. There is hardly 
a house in the town that. does not display a large Belgian flag. 
It looks as though it were bedecked for a festa. Here and 
there are French and British flags but practically no others. 
Every motor in town flies a flag or flags at the bow. We fly 
our own, but none the less the sentries who are stationed at 
all the comers dividing the chief quarters of the town and 
before all the Ministries and other public buildings stop us 
just the same and demand the papers of the chauffeur and each 
passenger in the car. We have passports and all sorts 
of other papers, but th.it was not enough, and we finally had 
to be furnished by the Ministry for F'oreign Affairs with 
special laissez-passer. This afternoon 1 slipped out for a 
breath of air and was held up and told that even that was no 
good until I had had it vised by the military authorities. It 
is said that these strict measures arc the result of the discovery 
of a tremendous spy system here. According to the stories 
which are told, but of which we have little confirmation, spies 
are being picked up all the time in the strangest guises. 
Yesterday, according to one of these yarns, four nuns 
Copiiright in (Re Vnittd Statet of 4m(rUa bv 'Tht World's Work," 
