Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-07-02
The Truth About Belgium
BY BRAND WHITLOCK
Continued from Last IssasJ

were 50 constantly coming up in our
experiences; they happened as things
happen in life and not in books, in
that casual, detached and unrelated
way in which life weaves its myster-
ious romance, without the regard
for unity that enslaves conscious art,
largely because, / suppose, our vision
is not broad enough in it's scope to
embrace the whole of the action. In
romances the war, or the earth
quake, or the calamity is an incident,
in the life of the individual; in life
itself the individual is but an incident,
and usually a most insignificant and
pitiable incident of the war, or what
ever the calamity might be.
Indeed these little difficulties fol-
lowed so swiftly one on the other
that there was not always time to
follow them TO their end. IL it was
not a woman in trouble or the latest
American arrival TO be got out of the
country, there seemed to be always
a British Red Cross ambulance to
be concerned about No sooner had
the duchess of Sutherland been re-
leased than three young Englishmen.
belonging to the ambulance then
serving at the railroad station at
Scheerbeck, disappeared. We found
them eventually where most. of those
who disappeared during all the time
in Belgium were to be found, at the
Kommandantur. The three young
men, of course. were charged with
spying. The Red Cross ambulance
had nursed German wounded, I'M
der the assurance that they would
be respected in accordance with The
Hague conventions. The phrase,
however, was beginning to lose some
of its magic, and when the three
were arrested, / tried to arrange not
only for their release but for their
departure by way of Holland. The
German physician who was then at
the head of the Red eros, DR..
Sturtz. wished to send them to
Liege: when objection was made
Liege being more directly in the
route to Germany than to Holland
the doctor produced a paper written
in German and signed by Mr.. Wyatt,
the young Englishman at the head of
the ambulance. in which he express
! ed his willingness to go to Liege; DR..
Sturtz insisted on this. Wyatt was
young and in a difficult position; he
could not read German and not only
had he not known what he was sign
ing. but he had signed it under
threats of the Germans. / pointed
all this out for DR.. Sturtz's benefit,
and argued that ii was not only I'M
fair but in most countries illegal to
hold man to a signature obtained
under duress. The point escaped the
German mind and for the time l
oh M decision
Way Germans Discussed Things.
The Germans, indeed, had a poll
cy, not impractical one must admit,
of preferring to discus the shortcom-
ings of the duties and responsible
ties of others rather than their own.
When | went to see them they al
ways introduced some other disa-
greeble topic before l could selfishly
mention my own; they always had
some complaint at hand, usually
about an American or the legation or
one of our English prOteges.
At that moment when l would go
| to them, it was the visit of the secre-
| taries of legation to Louvain they
preferred to discuss. They were be-
ginning to feel the reaction from that
mOnstrous horror. though they were
slow 20 realize il as a monstrous
/ horror themselves.
One young officer then temporarily
| in Brussels, remarked to me that the
affair was not of great Importance,
and that he failed to see why so
much ado was being made about it.
After ALL he said. nothing OF
great value was destroyed" spoke
I of the library had always the vi
| sion of the old priest bursting into
sobs as he tried TO articulate the
word 'bibliotheque,-but he said
that there was little of real impor-
I lance in that.
do not mean to write unkindly
about him; he was in reality not bad
at heart, but always ready and
even anxious to do favors and little
/ helpful deeds. He had come to zee
me in an effort to get Gibson and
/ Poussette and Bulle to testify that
they had seen civilians firing at Lou
vain. Several other officers cclled
on the same mission, among them
/ Won s., who in civil life was a
| banker. and he was so much a civil
I ian always that even his uniform did
/ ., raIisr@TiZC him. He was mau
! u tuuNuNADN anu CULTURE anu Az ACAh
/ the stigma on his land that Louvain
/ had indelibly placed there. The
younger military men among them
/ did not have much concern about it;
they were forgetting it and sweeping
| on to others like it; as Talleyrand
said ION peut militariser un civil,
mais on ne peut pas civiliser un mill
/ taire." zone can make soldier out
of a civilian, but one cannot make
| a civilian out of a soldier.~
/ I had not the slightest intention,
may as we'll say frankly, of help
ing any such evidence to go back,
for the simple reason that the young
men had no means Of knowing who
/ it was that was firing and that even
/ if civilians had fired it would not be
surprising. That which had been
going on for three days was enough
to make any civilian fire, if he had
anything to fire with. and his firing
three DAYS after the horror had be-
gun could not throw the slightest
hight on the question OF the initial
responsibility.
told them that 7 should have to
ask. in any event. the advice of the
/ government at Washington. and Won
der Lancken, with his knowledge OF
the WAYS OF dipiomatists. trained or
unframed. remarked that in making
/ Tho rnruacf would nrObably so