Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-07-26

patches. We had to nave paSSler-
scheins for the delegates of the c.
r. B., who were to travel about in
Belgium; we, that is Villalobar and
1, had to have a courier of our own,
with diplomatic immunities; and we
had to have passierScheins for our
selves.
Our First Meeting
1t was on November 5, after many
consultations, that we gathered at
last around the long oaken table at
the American legation there in my
room and had the first of those ses-
sions that were to be so often re-
peated in the history of the ravitail-
Iement (revictualizing) of Belgium.
The personages were always the
same: Mr. Hoover was present, OF
course, when he was in Brussels
and after the c. r. B. had dlrec-
tor. ne made one Of the council.
That day, however, there was the
MARQUIS of Villalobar, Mr.. SolNay'
whose snowy white hair and beard
framed the kindly face OF the hu-
rnanitarian; Mr.. Francqui, with ms
energy. his will, his executive force
and vigor, his black eyes Eashlng
determination or sparkling humor-
ouslv in the constant sallies or his
wit. the Baron Lambert, the grave
banker of the old house OF the
Rothschilds, scrupulously elegant III
attire, polished in manner, part!Cu-
lar in little things as In DlB-he
would never have letter written
in a script that looked as thouSh
if had been from an engraved plate
AND Mr.. Emmanuel Jensen,
grandson BY marriage of Mr.. SoINaE.
Mr.. Francqui read a rough uraL'
in which had been outlined win
order and particularly the WhoI0
organization; first of the Z. h b.
with it's committees and heauquar-
tiers in London, New York ana bruS-
sells, it's shipping station at Rotter-
dam; then of the G N, with us
seat in Brussels, a Subcommittee
in each province, etc, down 10 the
connmuneS, and all the vast Sys-
TENS of exchange for the finance OF
the enterprise, arranged by MI
Heineman and the GehelrnraIh
Kaufman. Thus slowly and with IN
finite pains the vast structure was
reared. with as many complications
and difficulties, as IL seemed at the
time. as there were at the Tower of
Babel.
That the great organization, the
one constructive organization lett
in the world, was got into such
perfect and efficient order at last
was due to the union of such eff
Client minds and wills as those of
Emile Francqui and Herbert c.
Hoover, though each of the others
contributed his share of real abil-
Of
4 desire to serve humanity. And it
was worth all it cost of pain and eff
fort when one evening a telegram
came from Rotterdam saying that
grain was being sent to Liege in
charge of Captain Sutherland, mill
tary attache at The Hague, and we
could say that food was at last
coming into Belgium!
The Hand of Iron Closes
In the first, and in many respects
the best of his short stories, "Boule
de Stuff" story that depicts with
the remorseless precision of his
impeccable and synical art the in
credible meanness of human nature,
Guy de Maupassan sums up in a
phrase the essential spiritual signi-
ficance of the Prussian occupation or
There was, however, something in
the air, something subtle and I'M
known, a strange and intolerable at
mosphere, like a diffused odor, the
odor of invasion"
AS in France in 1870, so in Bel
gium in 1914. 1t was the atmos-
phere. the moral odor of invasion,
that was hardest to bear. To those
who had been used all their lives
carelessly to breathe its air, liber-
ty, now that it was lost, became a
very real and beautiful thing. 1t
was always CALLING and at times
roaddening, even for us who were
the most privileged in the land, to
have every desire, every impulse,
every right, INSTRUCTED by YER
boten. At every prominent corner
in town there were brutal German
sentinels with red flags, great pla-
cards labelled Halle" and guns,
with their long bayonets fixed.
Everyone must have passierscheins
and personal ausweis and we
f1oundered in q morass of regulations
that made life an intolerable bur-
den.
Much has been written of the
cleanliness and order of German
cities; l have written some of it
myself; but / should rather live
in a city as dirty as some 1 might
name in France and Italy, governed
by a machine as corrupt as some 1
have heard of in America, composed
of the most renowned and reprehen-
sible of our bosses, and have liberty
as one does have it in them. than
to dwell in one of those cities of
Germany, with their ingangs and
ausgangs, clean and regulated to
the last degree. of course. but Who'll
~ without charm, and with the in
stitutional odor of a penitentiary.
Belgian Love of Freedom