The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-09-30
BELGIAN PRAISE
FOR AMERICANS
FOREIGN MINISTER EXPRESSES
COUNTRY'S APPRECIATION
OF AID RENDERED.

C''
her place in the sun, and to COM
plete freedom and independence"
said Baron Beyens. minister of for
eign affairs of Belgium, in the
course of an authorized interveN
given to The Associated Press.
Baron Beyens is one of the no
table figures of the present war,
for up to the beginning of the war
he was the Belgian minister at
Berlin and went through the crisis
illuminating in the first blow at
Belgium and the immediate entry
of England. France, and all Eu-
rope into the seething struggle.
Then, leaving Berlin. he entered the
Belgian cabinet and has since III
rected the foreign affairs of the
country, finding time also to write
q book which graphically describes
"the week of tragedy" at the Ger
man capital when the British ard
French ambassadors and himself
made their last attempts To prevent
the European conflict.
The ministry of foreign affairs,
where Baron Beyers was seen, is in
stalled at Ste. Adresse, a suburb
of Havre, in the Villa Hollandais, a
rustic chalet occupied in ordinary
time by seashore visitors, but nov
bearing Or the outer gate a snail
placard reading: "Ministere dcs
Affairs Estrangeres de Belgique."
A foreign office usually suggests
marble halls and big diplomatic
rooms with ambassadors sitting
among oil paintings and mahogany
furnishings. But the Villa Hollan-
dais has nothing of this kind. Three
snail pine structures have been
put up in the garden for various dip
lomatic and consular branches. In
side the villa there is the sim
Dlicity of ) summer cottage, but
everything :, 5crupulously we'll done
and effec i've.
Baron Beyers expressed at the
outset the deep sense OF apprecia-
ton felt by Belgium toward the
~ Oplt VI the Illltu States, anu.
ir particular, toward those who had
directed the work of sending food
supplies TO Belgium.
II am always glad to meet an
Americana said he, 'and to ax-
press my gratitude to your people
in general and to those who have
literally saved out people from star
vation. 1t is difficult for me to
say how much We feel indebted to
Mr.. Hoover. head of the committee
directing the relief work of Bel
GUM. He has proved himself to
be a man of great resourc and great
ability in the gigantic task of pro-
viding for a whole nation which
found itself suddenly threatened
with starvation or at least with cruel
privation.
1T was a task, moreover requir-
ing much diplomatic tact as well as
business knowledge, for the relief
committee was obliged to deal be-
tween the German officials on the
II hand and the allied officials on
the other. But all this has been
accomplished with infinite skill: on
stacles which seemed at times insur-
mountable have been overcome, and
practical results have been realized
which are of the highest Importance
to Belgium and the Belgian people.
The American minister at Brus-
sells, Mr.. Brand Whitlock, has also
won our unbounded admiration and
respect in performing a work Of
colossal magnitude under most try
ing conditions. Remaining at Brus-
sells while the government was con
strained by circumstances to estab-
lish itself temporarily outside Of
Belgium, the American minister has
been, with his courageous Spanish
colleague, the bulwark between orr
citizens remaining in the invaded
regions, and the German military
and civil authorities temporarily in
control.
Outside of the horrors and afro
cities of war which have been COM
mitted, the ordinary administration
OF civil affairs has been carried out
with an iron hand and with rigorous
harshness. In all this Minister
Whitlock has stood between our
people and the rigors of the Ger
man military administration. ana
such lenience as we have received
has come largely through his ener-
getic and discreet intervention"