August 30, 1 917 
LAND & WATER 
II 
reluctantly admitted that our pass was good. All the time 
he talked with us and told us of the skirmishing ahead he 
kept \va\'ing that large blunderbuss in our faces. I tried a 
little humour on him by saying as nearly as the unwieldy 
stnicture of the German tongue would permit :• " Please 
point that thing the other way ; you can never tell when it 
may go off and hurt somebody." 
He was quite solemn about it, "however, and assured us that 
lie had perfect control over it, emphasising his remarks by 
shaking it under our noses. I was glad to get out of his 
range, for I verily believe thai if somebody had shouted boo t 
he would have let that gun oft' with a bang. 
Arrival at Malines 
The German officers we talked with from time to time 
said that the Belgians, were advancing, and that Several 
skirmishes had taken place, that a big engagement was ex- 
pected during the night or in the morning. We passed the 
■ last of the German outposts about two miles this side of 
Jtalincs, but for fear we. might tell on them they would not 
tell us whether we had any more of their kind ahead of us. 
We shot along through the open country between the last 
Germans and the edge of Malines at a fairly good rate, and kept 
a look-out for the English flag, which we had been given to 
understand was flying from -the tower of the Cathedral. 
That is what we had been given to understand in Brussels ; 
but along the road they were very noncommittal about the 
whereabouts of the British troops. When we finally did get 
a clear view of the Cathedral spires we saw the Belgian 
flag standing straight out in the good breeze that was blowing, 
and while that showed that the English troops had not taken 
over the place, it at least convinced us that the Germans were 
behind us. .As we drove through the little suburb on this 
side of the canal which runs through the edge of the town, we 
found that all the houses were battened up tight. One lone 
man who came out from a little cafe told us that the Germans 
had been through about fifteen minutes before, and had shot 
up the town until they were driven off by a small force of 
Belgian cavalry which had appeared from nowhere and had as 
quickly gone back to the same place. Not knowing what 
forces were ready to start in again on short notice, all the 
inhabitants who were fortunate enough to have cellars were, 
hiding in them, and the rest were trying to get into town 
as best they could, leaving their belongings. ' , 
\\ hen wc reached the canal we found that the drawbridge 
had been taken up, and that there was no way to get across: 
There were a few gendarmes on the other side of the canal and 
a few carts on our side. All hands were anxious to get across, 
but the Burgomaster had ordered traffic to be suspended 
until things had quieted down. We prevailed upon a genial 
gendarme to run back and get orders to govern our special 
case. After waving our credentials "and showing how much 
influence we had with the local administration, we were quite 
popular with the panic-stricken {jeasants who wanted to get 
into the town. Orders came very soon, and we made straight 
for the Hotel de Ville to thank the Burgomaster for letting us 
in — and also to pick up any news he had as to conditions. 
^\'e did not get any greaf amount, however, as he could not 
get over the fact that we^ had come straight through from 
Brussels without having been shot by the German or the 
Belgian patrols who were out with orders to pick up strays 
like us. We tried several times to get information out of him, 
but ho could do nothing but marvel at our luck and above 
all our protiessc, which left him quite bowled over. We gave 
him up and went our way. He has had other things to marvel 
about since. 
Not far out of Malines we ran into the first Belgian outpost. 
When we were about fifty yards from them they surged across 
the road and began brandishing rifles, swords, lances, a 
veritable armoury of deadly weapons. Blount put on the 
emergency brakes and we were bracing for quick and voluble 
explanations when we saw that they were all grinning broadly 
and that each one was struggling to get our particular 
attention. We had our laisscr- passers in our hands and 
waved them in the air ; no one would pay the slightest heed to 
them. From the hubbub that was seething about our ears 
we learned that ten minutes or so before they had finished 
a little bnish with the ficrmans and that the articles they had 
been waving in our faces were the trophies of the combat. 
Each fellow was anxious to show us what he had taken and 
to tell just how he had done it. They seemed to take it for 
granted that we were friends and would enjoy the sight and 
share their delight. One of the boys — a chap about eighteen - - 
held aloft a huge pair of cavalry boots which he had pulled 
off a German he had killed. It was a curious mixture of 
childish pride and the savage reJT)icing of a Fiji Islander with a 
head he had taken. W'e admired their loot until they were 
satisfied, and then prevailed upon them to look at our papers. 
which they did in a perfimctory way. Then, after shaking 
hands all round, they sent us on with a cheer. 
We were hero-curiosities as the first civilians who had got 
through from the German lines since the occupation of Brussels. 
And perhaps we were not glad to be safely inside the Belgian 
lines! It was nervous work that far, but once inside we 
found everybody friendly and got through without any 
trouble, althougli we were stopped -every kilometre or so. 
Soon after wc passed the first outposts wc began passing 
Belgian troops advancing toward Malines in large force. They 
seemed in good spirits and ready for anything. Our position 
here has gone steadily up since the beginning of the hostilities, 
and everywhere we went the flag was cheered and we got a 
warm welcome. 
We had a slow time of it working our way through the forti- 
fications and convincing posts e\ery fifty yards that we were 
all right. • , 
This forward movement of the troops was a part of a con- 
.certed operation by which the Belgians were to attempt to re- 
take Malines and Brussels while the main German Army was 
engaged in attacking Mons and Charleroi. 
About twelve kilometres out of Antwerp we were stopped 
at a little house and asked if we would take a wounded man 
into town to the hospital. He had been shot through the 
hand and was suffering from shock and loss of blood but was 
able to chew a huge chunk of bread all the way into town. 
He had no interest in anything else, and aiter trying one or 
two questions on him I let him alone and watched the troops 
we were passing. They were an unbroken line all the way in 
and a lot of them had not kft town. The whole Belgian army 
and a lot of the Garde Civique were inside the ring of forts 
and were all being put on the road with full contingents of 
supply wagons, ambulances, and even dog artillery. These 
little chaps came tugging along the road and turned their 
heads to bark at us with enthusiasm. 
Mined Roads 
For a mile or so outside the enccinlc which had been thrown 
up around the town the roads are heavily mined, and small 
red flags planted between the cobbles warn passers-by to 
tread gently and gingerly. We did not require the urging 
of the sentries to make us proceed with caution over these 
places, which were so delicately mined that heavy carts were 
not allowed to pass. 1 breathed more easily when we were once 
out of this. 
We found the military hospital and handed over our 
wounded soldier to the attendants, who bundled him inside 
and then rushed back to hear what wc could tell them. They 
' had not heard a word from the outside world — or rather from 
our part of the outside world - since the withdrawal of the 
Belgian army to Antwerp, and they greeted us as they would 
greet fellow-beings returning from a journey to Mars. They 
had a few newspapers which were being published in Antwerp 
and handed them over' to us, we' being as anxious as they for 
the news that we had not been able to get. 
F'rom the hospital we drove to the Hotel St. Antoine and 
asked for rooms. The proprietor was very suspicious of us, 
and we'had a tremendous time convincing him that there was 
nothing the matter with us. He knew that we covrld not 
have come from Brussels, as nobody had been able to make 
the trip. Our papers were en regie but that made no difference, 
(ierman spies and other suspicious characters had managed 
to get forged papers before that. F'ortunately, all the other 
diplomats were living in the hotel, and I asked that he hunt up 
some of them and verify what we had to say for ourselves. 
Webber of the British Legation was brought out and acted 
as though he had seen a ghost. He calmed down enough to 
assure the proprietor that we were respectable citizens 
and that he could safely give us rooms. All the other people 
were away from the hotel for the moment, so we deposited 
our things in our room and made for the Consulate General. 
It was then half- past six and the Consul General had gone for 
the day. A well trained porter refused to tell where either he 
or the V. C. G. lived, but we managed to find out and got to 
the V. C. G.'s house after a hunt with a chasseur of the hotel on 
the box. He was not at home, but his wife was there. 
We talked with her for a few minutes and then went back to 
the hotel to await Sherman's (V. C. G.) coming. He called in 
the course of a few minutes and we made arrangements to go 
to the Consulate after dinner and get off our telegrams. 
By the time we could get washed up and ready for dinner 
the "crowd had come back, and when we set foot on the stair- 
way we were literally overwliclmed by our loving friends. 
First I met Sir Francis Villiers and accepted his invitation to 
dine. He and Prince Koudachoff, the Russian Minister, a 
lot of other colleagues and goodness only knows who else fell 
upon us for demands for news, I took refuge in Sir F'rancis's 
office and saw as many people as 1 could until dinner time. 
