October 4, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
13 
bv fishing down a few boxes from the platform and erecting 
a bjirricade of sorts to protect us against stray kicks. 
As we sat in the undignified position imposed on us by 
circumstances we exchanged fri\:olous remarks, not becatise 
we felt particuLirly gay, but because vve had to do something 
to keep ourselves" interested and to keep our courage up. 
Bulle resented this and raised his head to look at nie 
reproachfully over the barricade and say : " Don't talk hke 
that ; it is nothing sliort of tempting Provi'.ieiice." 
. After a time, Bloimt and I decided to make a recpnnais- 
sance in force, and see how the car was getting on. We cra\yled 
along the floor to a place from whicli we could see out into 
the square. The soldiers were flat on their stomachs behind 
a low wall that extended around the small circular park 
in the centre of the square, and behind any odd shelter they 
could find. The car lay in the line of fire' but had not been 
struck. We were sufficiently pessimistic to be convinced 
that it would go up in smoke before the row was over, and 
took a good look at our shoes to see whether they would last 
through a walk back to Brussels. 
Our officer came out from behind his barricade and showed 
us- where the attacking force was concealed — at least, he 
told us that they were there, and we were willing to take his 
word for it without going, across the street to make a first 
han<l investigation. ^ 
The German Version 
He tried to impress us with the black sinfulness of people 
who would fire upon the German troops, and called our 
particular attention to the proof now offered us that civilians 
had started the row by firing on German troops. According 
to the German story, which was the only one we had heard, 
civilians had been hunted down like rats in garrets and cellars, 
and shot down in cold blood in the streets when they sought 
safety in flight. To my mind, it was not surprising that 
men driven to desperation by seeing their friends and neigli- 
l)ours murdered in cold blood should decide to sell their 
lives as dearly as they could and should do any possible 
harm to the enemy, three days of the reign of terror that 
had been described to us was enough to account for anything, 
and the fact that civilians were firing now did not, in any 
sense, prove that they were guilty of starting the trouble. 
Tor all we could tell, they may have started it or they may 
not have — but firing by them three days after the row be- 
gan was no proof to anyone with the slightest sen.se of the 
value of evidence. On the other hand, the story freely told 
us by the Germans as to their own behaviour is enough to 
create the darkest presumptions as to how the trouble started 
- and would seem to place the burden of proof on them rather 
than on the Belgians. 
\\ hile we were talking about this there came another rattle 
r^f fire, and we scuttled back to our shelter among the horses, 
r.very now and then a surly soldier with two huge revolvers 
came and looked over the ledge at us and growled out : Wasx 
niachen .S/V iliiin hier ? followed by some doubting remarks 
as to our right to be on the premises. As he was evidently 
very drunk and bad temjwred, I was not at all sure that he 
would not decide on his own responsibility to take no chances, 
and put us out of our misery. After several visits, however, 
lie evidently found something else more interesting, and 
came back no more to trouble us. 
V\ hen the row began, a motor had l>een despatched toward 
Brussels to recall some troops that had left a few hours be- 
fore ; now ?nd then our officer came in to tell us what he 
thought of their chances of getting back. 
On one of these visits Blount remarked bv way of airv 
persiflage that that drink of wine that had been sent for was "a 
lf)ng time coming. .\nything as subtle as that was lost on oui 
friend, for he walked solemnly away, only to reappear in a few- 
minutes with a bottle and several glasses which lie set up on 
the edge of the platform and filled with excellent Burgundy. 
We stood up among the horses and drained a bumper of the 
stuft' while the officer wandered back to his work. He 
had gone calmly out into the thick of things to rescue this 
bottle and took it as a matter of course that wc ^ihould claim 
the drink that had been promised us. 
Presently with a good deal of noiSe a fairly large force of 
troops came marching down the boulevard and took up posi- 
tions around the station. Our officer returned, waving a 
smoking revolver, and told us to lie down as flat as we could 
among the horses and not to move unless they got restive. 
He said it looked as though an attempt would be' made to take 
the station by storm and that there might be a brisk fight. 
However, there were only a few scattering shots, and then 
our friend came back and told us that we had better get out 
and start for home before things began again. He added, 
however, that we ninst have the ix^mission of the com- 
manding ofticer who was on the other sid<> of the station, 
but rtfiered ti) pilot us to the fjreat man and help us get the jier- 
mission. ineway lav straight out into the square, in full 
view of the houses across the road, along th' front of the 
station just behind the troops and into the railroad yard on 
the other side. 
That station seemed about four miles long, and the officer 
was possessed of a desire to loiter by the way recounting 
anecdotes of his school days. He would walk along for a few 
steps and then pause to tell Bdlle seme long and rambling 
yarn about his uncle. Then the old chap would transfer 
his conversational fire to ajiother member of the party, and 
we were obliged almost to pull him the length of the square. 
The commanding officer was a pleasant-faced little man 
who stood in the shelter of a water tank and received us in a 
puzzled way as though he wondered what civilians were going 
in that neighbourhood any%vay. Permission wa^ readily 
granted for us to leaye — -with the ludicrous proviso that we did 
so "at our own risk." Then Bulle put everybody in food 
humour by inquiring innocently if there was any danger. 
Everybody burst into peals of laughter, and we were escorted 
to our car by the same slow moving officer, who insisted on 
exchanging cards with us and expressing the hope that we 
should meet again — which we could not honestly reciprocate. 
Then, after an hour and a half in the station, we got away 
amid a great waving of hands. , 
The boule\ards were deserted save for the troops coming 
back into the town. New houses w^ere burning that had been 
intact in the afternoon. After passing the Porte de Tirle- 
niont we began to see people again —little gi-oups that had 
come out into the streets through a craving for company and 
stood huddled together listening to the fighting in the lower 
part of the town. In harmony with the jxilicy of terrorising 
the population the Germans have trained them to throw up 
their hands as soon as any one comes in sight in order to prove 
that they are unarmed and defenceless. And the way 
they do it, the abject fear that is evident, shows that failure 
to comply with the rule is not lightly punished. 
Our worst experience of this was w ju-n in coming around a 
corner we came upon a little girl of about seven carrying a 
canary in a cage. As soon as she saw us she threw up her 
hands and cried out something we did not understand. 
Thinking that she wanted to stop us with a warning of Some 
sort we put on the br.akes and drew up beside her. Then she 
burst out crying with fear and we saw that she was in terror 
of her life. We called out to reassure her, but she turjicd and 
ran like a hunted animal. 
It was hard to see the fear of others — townspeople, peasants, 
priests, and feeble old nuns who dropped their bundles and 
threw up their hands, their ej'es starting with fear. The 
whole thing wasa nightmare. 
And so back to the Legation without further mishap to find 
everybody worrying about us. 
Systematic Atrocities 
The foregoing is an impression of one afternoon at Louvain 
taken from a journal written at the time. It was intended to 
pass on the question of res]>onsibility for precipitating the org\' 
of murder and bestiality indulged in by the (rermanArmy 
from -August 25th until the :ioth, when orders were 
received from Berlin to stop the destruction and restore 
public order. 
Many subsequent visits to Ix)uvain and conversations 
with people who were there when the trouble began have only 
served to strengthen the impression that the whole affair 
was part of a cold blooded and calculated plan to terrorize 
the civilian population. 
\\ hile we were there it was frankly stated that the town 
was being wiped out ;.and its destrtiction was being carried out 
under definite orders. When the German Government 
realized the horror and loathing in which the civilized 
world learned of the fate of louvain the orders were 
cancelled and the story sent out that the Gcman force-s 
had tried to preve^nt the destruction, had fought the 
fire, and by good fortune had been able to save the Hotel de 
\'ille. Never has a Government lied more brazenly. When 
we arrived the destruction of the town was being 'carried 
on in an orderly and systematic way that showed careful 
preparation. The only tiling that sa\ed the Hotel de \'ille was 
the fact that the Crerman troops had not progressed that far 
when the orders were ctiuntermandcd from Berlin. 
// it'rts onh whi'n Iw learned Iwn civilisation regarded his 
crimes that the Emperor's heart heoan to bleed. 
The true facts as to the destruction of Louvain will startle 
the world — hardened though it has become to surprise at 
German crimes, l^nfortunately. however, it is impossible 
to publish the details at this time without endangering the 
lives of people still in Belgium under (lerman domination. 
But these jieople will speak lor themselves when the Germans 
have been driven from Belgian soil and they are once more 
free to speak the truth. 
