10 
LAND & WATER 
beptember 20, 1917 
pievailed in the city. They took these messages back and let 
the old chap read them. lie ploughed his way carefully 
through them and ' expressed his great satisfaction at the 
friendly expressions of approva!. He put his O.K. on tlicni 
and handed them back with the remark that they niight send 
them. The boys ventured to inquire how ? " Oh," said the 
(leneral. " you can either send a courier with them to Holland 
or to Gernianv and have them telegrarJied from there." 
Whereupon he rose and. bowing graciously, left the bunch .so 
flabbergasted tiiat they did not wake up imtil he was gone. 
He was most amiable and smiling, and got away with it. 
Official Pillage Begins 
The General commanding the forces now coining through - 
von Arnim -got out a proclamation to-day, which was jxisted 
in the streets, warning the inhabitants that they would be 
called upon for supplies and might have troops quartered 
upon them, and that if they ventured upon hostile acts they 
w<nild suffer severely. 
The strongest thing so far was the series of demands made 
upon the city and province. The city of Brussels has been 
'.;iven three days to hand over 50-million francs in coin or 
bills. The Germans also demand a tremendous supply of 
food to be furnished during the next three days ; if the city 
fails to deliver any part of it it must pay in coin at a rate 
equal to twice the market value of the supplies.. The pro- 
vince of Brabant must hand over by the first of next month 
450 millions of francs — 90 million dollars. When you consider 
that the total war' indemnity imposed by Germany upon 
France in 1870 was only five milliards, the enormity of this 
apjx'ars. L'pon one little province of a tiny country they are 
imposing a tax equal to one tenth that imposed on the whole 
of France. How on earth they are ever to arrange to pay it I 
cannot possibly see. I do not know what is to happen if 
they fail to make good, but I have no doubt that it will 
be something pretty dreadful. 
This afternoon tlie Germans went into the Ministry of War 
and the Foreign Office and searched through the archives' 
it must have been an entirely futile proceeding, for all papers 
of any interest were removed to Antwerp when the Govern- 
metit left. I can imagine ncrthing more deadly dull than 
br(}wsing through the routine correspondence of the Belgian 
^Ministries. The liigh officials who were still here were kept 
in the buildings to witness the search — a needless humiliation. 
There is talk now of a search of the Britisii Legation, but we 
have heard nothing of it and expect that nothing of the sort 
will be done without asking our permission first. 
Hnissels, August 22nd, 1914. — Another day with much to 
do and no great results. • '. v 
This morning at 7 o'clock General von Jarotzky arrived at 
the Legation and was all smiles. It appears that my action 
in making known my displeasure at his behaviour and that of 
his staff had a good effect. ■ We have heard from several 
sources that he blew up everybody in sight yesterday after- 
noon when he came out from the Burgomaster's office and 
learned that I had departed in bad temper. He knows that 
nobody dares to oppose his acts or views, but just the same 
he gave them fits for not having made me stay and attend to 
my ca,se. Be that as it may. he appeared with his chief of 
staff and sent up a message that brought the Minister down 
, in his pyjamas and dres.sing-gown. He, expressed great 
regret for the " misunderstanding " of yesterday evening and 
assured the Minister that there would be no further cause 
for complaint on our part. He had in his hand the telegram 
which we liad sent him the evening before— the very same 
telegram wliich we had been trying to get off ever since the 
(lerman occupation of the city ; he had signed each page of 
the message and had affixed his stamp with an order that it 
bt> immediately transmitted. He explained to the Minister 
^ that the best thing to do was for him to take it in person to 
the office of the Director of the Bureau of Telegraphs, who 
had already received instructions on the subjecf. 
The servants were thrown into a perfect panic by the arrival 
of the (jcneraux. It took some argument to convince them 
tliat the Germans would hardly need to send two generals to 
take them into custody. 
About ten o'clock I was starting to go down to the telegraph 
office to send the messages when the Spanish Minister drove 
up in his big green car with the Spanish flag flying at the fore. 
We told him <nir stor\', whereupon he announced that he also 
had telegrams to send and that he would go with us. We 
drove in state to the telegraph office and found that the 
entrance which had been indicated to us was the alley through 
which the mail wagons dri\e in the good days when there are 
any. Before an admiring crowd we descended and made our 
way among Prussian troopers through the noisome alley 
to a small side door, where we were stopped by a sentry who 
stuck a bayonet in our general direction and said we "could 
1:0 no farther. 
We went to the Burgomaster in Ids private office and 
placed our troubles before him. He understood the importance 
of the matter and sent for the General. He appeared in short 
order, clicked his heels, and inquired whether we had come in 
regard to the matter of telegrams. The old fox knew per- 
fectly well that wc had and was ready for us. We had come 
to the conclusion-which I had reached yesterday afternoon 
and held all by my lonesome- -that the old man was jockeying. 
We spent nearly two hours at the Hotel dc Ville and got 
in a good deal of talk that will be of service to all sorts of 
people. When we got back we found the chancery full of 
pcoj>le will) were waiting for us to tell them just how they 
could send telegrams and letters and get passports and permitf 
to pass through the lines in all possible directions. Before 
leaving 1 had dictated a bulletin which was posted in the hall- 
way itating that there were no communications with the out- 
side world by rail, telegraph, or post, and that no lahior- 
fasscrs would be granted by the authorities. 
First Rumours of Louvain 
About four o'clock McCutcheon, Irwin and Cobb breezed 
in looking like a lot of tramps. They had sailed blissfully 
away to Louvain in a taxi which they had picked up in front 
of the hotel ; when they got there they got out and started to 
walk about to see what was going on when, before they could 
realize what was happening, they found tlieniselves in the 
midst of a Belgian retreat hard pressed by a German advance. 
They were caught between the two and escaped with their 
liv'es by flattening themselves uj) against the side of a house 
while the firing continued. \\ hen the row was over, they were 
left high and clry with no taxi —of course, it had been grabbed 
by the retreating troops -and with no papers to justify their 
presence in Louvain at such a time. They decided that the 
best thing to do was to go straight to the German head- 
quarters and report. - They were received well enough and 
told to Ibdge themselves as test they could and stay indoors 
until it was decided what was to be done with them. They 
were told that they might be kept prisoners here or even sent 
to Berlin, but that no harm would come to them if they be- 
haved themselves. The order liad gone out that if a single shot 
was filed at the German troops from the window of any house 
evetybody in tht>- house was to be inmiediately taken out and 
shot. Not wishing to risk any such unpleasant cn'l, they 
rented all the front rooms of a house and spread themselves 
through all the rooms so that they could be suie that nobody 
did any slaughtering from their house. They were there for 
three days and were told to-day that they might take them- 
selves hence. They came back to Brussels in the same clothes 
that they had worn for the past three days, unshaven and 
dirty as pigs 
This evening when I went to sec my old friend the General 
just before dinner he told me that he had had news of a great 
battle near Metz in which the French army had been cut off 
and practically destroyed with a loss of 43,000 prisoners. It 
sounds about as probable as some of the other yarns. In view 
of the fact that my friend had no telegraphic communication 
1 was curious to know where he got his information, but my 
gentle queries did not bring forth any news on that point. 
The (iermans now expect to establish themselves for some 
time here in Brussels. They are going to occupy the various 
(rovernmentid departments, and it is quite possible that for 
some time wc sliall have to deal exclusively with them. 
The Government to which we are accredited has faded away, 
and wc are left here with a con<lition and not a theory. We 
shall have to deal with the condition, and I am not at all 
sure that the condition will not require some pretty active 
dealing with. Functionaries are to be brought from Berlin 
to administer the various departments, so that it is cx'idently 
expected that the occupation i;i not to be of a temporary 
character. 
Later. — After writing the foregoing I went upstairs and 
listened to some of the talcs of the four people who were 
tied up at Louvain. 
They said it was really pretty dreadful. From their window 
thoy saw, cvet'y little while, a group of soldiers lead some poor 
frighiened Belgian tri a little cafe across the street ; several 
oflieers were sitting at one of the tables on the sidewalk 
holding a sort of drumhead court martial. While they were 
examining thb case a squad would be merched abound behind 
tlie railroad station. A few minutes later the prisoner would 
be rii'arched atourtd by another way and in a few minutes 
there would bt'ayolley and the troops would be marched back 
to their post i then, kfter a little while, a stretcher would be 
brought out with a body in civilian clothes, a cloth over the 
facei Some of the prisoners were women, and there were 
screams before the shots were fired. It must have been a 
dreadful ordeal to go through. 
{To be continued) 
