A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium Part 25

_Brussels, Sunday, December 6, 1914._--We got away at eight o'clock on Thursday morning, in three cars from the Palace Hotel. We were four cars when we started, but fifty feet from the door the leading car broke down and could not be started, so we rearranged ourselves and left the wreck behind. The party was composed of the three Rockefeller representatives, Dr. Rose, Mr. Bicknell, and Henry James, Jr., Monsieur Francqui, Josse Allard, Jack and I.

It was rainy and cold, but we made good time to Louvain and stopped at the Hotel de Ville. Professor Neerincxs, of the University, took up the duties of Burgomaster when the Germans s.h.i.+pped the real one away. He speaks perfect English, and led the crowd around the town with the rush and energy of a Cook's tourist agent. He took us first through the Cathedral, and showed us in detail things that we could not have seen if we had gone at it alone. Then around to the library and some of the other sights of particular interest, and finally for a spin through the city, to see the damage to the residence district. This was a most interesting beginning, and made a good deal of an impression on our people. They asked questions about the work being done by the people toward cleaning up the ruins of the town and trying to arrange make-s.h.i.+ft shelters to live in during the winter. The Mayor is a man of real force of character, and has accomplished marvels under the greatest difficulties.

From Louvain we cut away to the northeast to Aerschot, where we took a quick look at the welter of ruin and struck out to the west through Diest and Haelen, which I saw on my first trip with Frederick Palmer before there was anything done to them.

We got to Liege about one o'clock and had lunch in a restaurant downtown, where we were joined by Jackson, our delegate sent down there to supervise the distribution of food for the Commission. He told us a lot about the difficulties and incidents of his work, and some details of which we had to think. He is the first delegate we have sent to outlying cities, and is up on his toes with interest. A lot more have already sailed from New York, and will soon be here. They are to be spread all over the country in the princ.i.p.al centres, some to stay in the big cities and watch local conditions, and others to travel about their districts and keep track of the needs of the different villages.

It is all working out a lot better than we had hoped for, and we have good reason to be pleased. Our chief annoyance is that every time things get into a comfortable state, some idiot starts the story either in England or America that the Germans have begun to seize foodstuffs consigned to us. Then we have to issue statements and get off telegrams, and get renewed a.s.surances from the German authorities and make ourselves a general nuisance to everybody concerned. If we can choke off such idiots, our work will be a lot easier.

The Burgomaster came into the restaurant to find us, and offered to go on with us to Vise, to show us the town, and we were glad to have him, as he knows the place like the palm of his hand.

I had been through Vise twice, and had marvelled at the completeness of the destruction, but had really had no idea of what it was. It was a town of about forty-five hundred souls, built on the side of a pretty hill overlooking the Meuse. There are only two or three houses left. We saw one old man, two children and a cat in the place. Where the others are, n.o.body knows. The old man was well over sixty, and had that afternoon been put off a train from Germany, where he had been as a prisoner of war since the middle of August. He had KRIEGSGEFANGENER MUNSTER stencilled on his coat, front and back, so that there could be no doubt as to who he was. He was standing in the street with the tears rolling down his cheeks and did not know where to go; he had spent the day wandering about the neighbouring villages trying to find news of his wife, and had just learned that she had died a month or more ago. It was getting dark, and to see this poor old chap standing in the midst of this welter of ruin without a chick or child or place to lay his head.... It caught our companions hard, and they loaded the old man up with bank-notes, which was about all that anybody could do for him and then we went our way. We wandered through street after street of ruined houses, sometimes whole blocks together where there were not enough walls left to make even temporary shelters.

Near the station we were shown a shallow grave dug just in front of a house. We were told who filled the grave--an old chap of over sixty. He had been made to dig his own grave, and then was tied to a young tree and shot. The bullets cut the tree in two just a little above the height of his waist, and the low wall behind was full of bullet holes.

As nearly as we can learn, the Germans appear to have come through the town on their way toward Liege. Nothing was supposed to have happened then, but on the 15th, 16th and 17th, troops came back from Liege and systematically reduced the place to ruins and dispersed the population.

It was clear that the fires were all set, and there were no evidence of street fighting. It is said that some two hundred civilians were shot, and seven hundred men bundled aboard trains and sent back to Germany as prisoners of war--harmless people like the old chap we saw.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Von Bulow's greeting to the people of Liege

ORDRE A LA POPULATION LIeGEOISE

La population d'Andenne, apres avoir temoigne des intentions pacifiques a legard de nos troupes, les a attaquees de la facon la plus traitresse. Avec mon autorisation, le general qui commandait ces troupes a mis la ville en cendres et a fait fusiller 110 personnes.

Je porte ce fait a la connaissance de la Ville de Liege pour que ses habitants sachent a quel sort ils peuvent s'attandre s'ils prennent une att.i.tude semblable.

Liege, le 22 Aout 1914

General von BULOW.

Translation:

ORDER TO THE POPULATION OF LIeGE

The population of Andenne, after manifesting peaceful intentions toward our troops, attacked them in the most treacherous manner.

With my authorization the general who commanded these troops has reduced the town to ashes and has shot 110 persons.

I bring this fact to the knowledge of the City of Liege so that its people may understand the fate which awaits them if they a.s.sume a like att.i.tude.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: How the simple pleasures of the German soldier were restricted.

DIESES HAUS IST ZU SCHuTZEN

Es ist streng verboten, ohne Genehmigung der Kommandantur, Hauser zu betreden oder in Brand zu setzen.

Die Etappen-Kommandantur.

Translation:

THIS HOUSE IS TO BE PROTECTED

It is strictly forbidden to enter houses or set them on fire without the permission of the Kommandantur]

The Burgomaster set out on foot to walk back three kilometers and catch a tram to Liege, and we went southeast to Dalhem, where we spent the night at the Chateau de Dalhem, on a hill overlooking the picturesque little village snuggled in the bottom of the valley. It was off the main line of march, and had not suffered. The chateau belongs to General Thyss, who was a great friend of the late King Leopold. He was not there, but the place was being protected by a splendid old dragon in the shape of a German governess who had been with the family for over thirty years, and refused to leave when the war broke out. She had been obliged to lodge a crowd of German officers and some of their men, but held them down with an iron hand, kept them from doing any damage and made them pay for every egg and every bottle of wine they had. We arrived after dark and threw the place into a panic of fear, but Monsieur Francqui soon rea.s.sured everybody, and the place was lighted up and placed at our disposal in short order.

Although it was pitch dark when we arrived, it was only half past four and we set out on foot to stretch a little. The moon came out and lighted our way through the country roads. We tramped for a couple of hours through all sorts of little towns and villages and groups of houses, some of them wiped out and some hardly touched.

General Thyss's cellars are famous, and with our dinner of soup and bacon and eggs, we had some of the finest Burgundy I have ever tasted.

Early to bed so that we could be up and off at daybreak.

Friday morning we were away early, and made for Herve, where I had never been before. It is a ruin with a few natives and a lot of Landsturm left. We talked to some peasants and to an old priest who gave us something to think about in their stories of happenings there during and after the occupation of their homes. From there to Liege, by way of a lot of little villages whose names I don't remember, but whose condition was pretty bad, past the fort of Fleron and the defensive works that are being put up there.

Wasted some time trying to get gasoline for the other motors, and then the long stretch to Namur, down the valley of the Meuse, and stopped long enough for a look at Andennes, my second visit to the place.

In Andenne and Seilles (a little village across the Meuse) the Germans did a thorough job. They killed about three hundred people and burned about the same number of houses. Most of the houses had been looted systematically. According to the stories of those inhabitants who remain, there was a reign of terror for about a week, during which the Germans rendered themselves guilty of every sort of atrocity and barbarity. They are all most positive that there was no firing upon the German troops by the civil population. It seems to be generally believed that the ma.s.sacre was due to resistance of retiring Belgian troops and the destruction of bridges and tunnels to cover their retreat. Whatever the provocation, the behaviour of the Germans was that of savages. We were shown photographs showing the corpses of some of those killed. It was to be inferred that they had been wantonly mutilated.

Had lunch at an hotel across the street from the station. After a hasty lunch we made off to Dinant, still following the Meuse. The thin line of houses down the course of the river were thinner than they were a few months ago, and there were signs of suffering and distress everywhere. I had never been to Dinant before, but had seen pictures of it and thought I had an idea of what we were going to see. But the pictures did not give a hint of the horror of the place. The little town, which must have been a gem, nestled at the foot of a huge gray cliff, crowned with the obsolete fort, which was not used or attacked. The town is _gone_. Part of the church is standing, and the walls of a number of buildings, but for the most part, there is nothing but a mess of scattered bricks to show where the houses had stood. And why it was done, we were not able to learn, for everybody there says that there was no fighting in the town itself. We heard stories, too, and such stories that they can hardly be put on paper. Our three guests were more and more impressed as we went on. The bridge was blown up and had fallen into the river, and as we had little time to make the rest of our day's journey, we did not wait to cross by the emergency bridge farther up the river. While we were standing talking to a schoolmaster and his father by the destroyed bridge, seven big huskies with rifles and fixed bayonets came through, leading an old man and a woman who had been found with a camera in their possession. At first there was no objection raised to the taking of photographs, but now our friends are getting a little touchy about it, and lock up anybody silly enough to get caught with kodaks or cameras.

According to what we were told, the Germans entered the town from the direction of Ciney, on the evening of August 21st, and began firing into the windows of the houses. The Germans admit this, but say that there were French troops in the town and this was the only way they could get them out. A few people were killed, but there was nothing that evening in the nature of a general ma.s.sacre. Although the next day was comparatively quiet, a good part of the population took refuge in the surrounding hills.

On Sunday morning, the 23rd, the German troops set out to pillage and shoot. They drove the people into the street, and set fire to their houses. Those who tried to run away were shot down in their tracks. The congregation was taken from the church, and fifty of the men were shot.

All the civilians who could be rounded up were driven into the big square and kept there until evening. About six o'clock the women were lined up on one side of the square and kept in line by soldiers. On the other side, the men were lined up along a wall, in two rows, the first kneeling. Then, under command of an officer, two volleys were fired into them. The dead and wounded were left together until the Germans got round to burying them, when practically all were dead. This was only one of several wholesale executions. The Germans do not seem to contradict the essential facts, but merely put forward the plea that most of the damage was incidental to the fighting which took place between the armed forces. Altogether more than eight hundred people were killed. Six hundred and twelve have been identified and given burial. Others were not recognisable. I have one of the lists which are still to be had, although the Germans have ordered all copies returned to them. Those killed ranged in age from Felix Fivet, aged three weeks, to an old woman named Jadot, who was eighty. But then Felix probably fired on the German troops.

[Ill.u.s.tration:

AUX HABITANTS DE LA BELGIQUE

Le Marechal Von der Goltz fait connaitre aux Populations de Belgique qu'il est informe par les Generaux Commandants les troupes d'occupation sur le territoire francais, que le cholera sevit avec intensite dans les troupes alliees, et qu'il y a le plus grand danger a franchir ces lignes, ou a penetrer dans le territoire ennemi

Nous invitons les Populations de Belgique a ne pas entrendre cet avis, et ceux qui croiraient ne pas devoir se soumettre a cet avis, seront traduits devant les Officiers de la Justice Imperiale, et nous les prevenons que la peine peut-etre celle de mort.

Marechal Von der Goltz Septembre 1914

Translation:

Field-Marshal von der Goltz announces to the Belgian population that he is informed by the Generals commanding the troops occupying French territory that cholera is raging fiercely among the allied troops and that there is the greatest danger in crossing the lines or entering enemy territory.

We call upon the Belgian population not to infringe this notice.

Those who do not comply with this notice will be brought before the Imperial Officers of Justice and we warn them that the penalty of death may be inflicted upon them.]

There is no end to the stories of individual atrocities. One is that Monsieur Wa.s.seige, director of one of the banks, was seized by the Germans, who demanded that he should open the safes. He flatly refused to do this, even under threat of death. Finally he was led with his two eldest sons to the Place d'Armes and placed with more than one hundred others, who were then killed with machine guns. Monsieur Wa.s.seige's three youngest children were brought to the spot by German soldiers, and compelled to witness the murder of their father and two brothers.

From Dinant we struck across country through Phillipeville and some little by-roads to Rance, where we were expected at the house of G.

D----. He and his wife and their little girl of five had just returned that morning to receive us, but the place was brightly lighted and as completely prepared as though they had been there all the time. It was a lovely old place, and we were soon made comfortable. German officers have occupied it most of the time, and it required a good deal of cleaning and repairing after they left, but fortunately this work had just been completed, and we had a chance to enjoy the place before any more enforced guests appeared. One of the Imperial princelings had been there for one night, and his name was chalked on the door of his room.

He had been _tres aimable_, and when he left had taken D----'s motor with him.

We took a tramp around the town in a biting wind, and looked at some of the houses of our neighbours. Some of them were almost wrecked after having served as quarters for troops for varying periods. From others all the furniture had been taken away and s.h.i.+pped back to Germany. One man showed us a card which he had found in the frame of one of his best pictures. It was the card of a German officer, and under the name was written an order to send the picture to a certain address in Berlin. The picture was gone, but the frame and card were still there and are being kept against the day of reckoning--if any. We were shown several little safes which had been pried open and looted, and were told the usual set of stories of what had happened when the army went through. Some of the things would be hard to believe if one did not hear them from the lips of people who are reliable and who live in such widely separated parts of the country at a time when communications are almost impossible.

We had a good and ingeniously arranged dinner. All sorts of ordinary foods are not to be had in this part of the country, and our hostess had, by able thinking, arranged a meal which skillfully concealed the things that were lacking. Among other things, I observed that we had a series of most delicious wines--for our host of that evening also had a wonderful cellar. They had told us just before dinner that the Germans had taken an inventory of their wines and had forbidden them to touch another drop, so I wondered whether they were not incurring some risk in order to give us the wine that they considered indispensable. When I asked our hostess, she told me that it was very simple, that all they needed to do was to drink a part of several bottles, refill them partially with water, seal them, and put them back in the cellars; she said scornfully that "_les Boches_ don't know one wine from another,"