Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-06-21
The Truth About Belgium

BY BRAND WHITLOCK

NAL dose of despair. We read in
them that Won Kluck was before
Paris, and we waited daily, almost
hourly, for the announcement of the
fall Of the French capital; we read of
the departure of the government for
Bordeaux and of Gallienis famous
phrase: ''Je remplirai cette mission
jusqu su bout."U will discharge this
mission to the end.)
We followed in imagination from
day 10 day the porgreSS toward Paris
OF those armies we had seen sweep
through Brussels, the very same, no
doubt, which, in a tragic moment. Sir
John French's scouts saw looming
before them a few days after. The
very mystery added to the terror of
the thought, the very uncertainty
made us all the more certain. Every
day, over at the ministry of foreign
affairs, General Won Luttwitz, with
the impersonal calmness of the fates
themselves, would tell of the prog
ress Of their armies, nearer by so
many kilometers every day; nearer
and nearer then, day by day, and at
last one day he remarked simply:
We shall enter Paris tomorrow"
1t seemed like the end of the world
our world, the world as we of the
west knew it. l did not see him the
next day. But the following l said:
Il presume you are in Paris now"
No." he said, quite simply. After
all, You see, our objective is not
Paris. Our army is swinging around.
making an enveloping movement, "
and he made an enveloping move
ment himself with his arm, swinging
IL about with an inclusive gesture
that seemed to embrace and gather
into its tolls the whole of the French
nation, I'VE must destroy the French
army"
And that, at the time, was what I
knew OF the battle of the Marine. l
DO not know much more about it
now; l do not at all understand what
happened there south of us on that
day. I mean to read, some day. the
story, though l shall probably be I'M
able to understand it, military move
ments being for me a mystery beyond
solution. The only description of a
battle that l could ever understand
is that of Tolstoy's in "War and
Peace and l understand that only
because Tolstoy makes it so plain that
the military science is not so much a
science as a congeries of human falli-
bllities and spiteful little accidents.
IL 1t were otherwise the Germans
would have indicated General Won
Luttwitz's predictions, and not have
left the imperial armies to the ironic
hazard of all those Paris taxicabs, of
which, l am sure, there was never
the slimmest list in the archives of
the French general staff.
We heard for the first time, too, of
Hindenburg, a colonel general then,
whatever that may be. No newspa-
pers were published in Brussels, and
none were allowed to enter unless
they we're German, but as one walked
along the streets toward evening,
furtive figures would approach and
whisper: Times, Monsieur" And
one might buy a copy of the Thun-
derer several days old for ten or
twelve francs. Then we learned that
these statesmen were being shot in
they were discovered. So we bought
their contraband papers no more, not
caring to be even indirectly associated
with such tragedies. When our
pouches got through the lines the
newspapers they brought we're old
and nothing so quickly evaporates
perhaps as the interest of a newspa-
per, which, like waffles, must be hot
from the irons to be worth while.
Thus more and more we turned in
upon ourselves and our own little
affairs, little, that is, in comparison
with the larger affairs outside" as
we soon came to think of the greater
world beyond those grey lines that
hemmed us in.
The Foreigners Leave
But there was no escape from the
sights and scenes and incidents of
trouble that so constantly reminded
us of war. There were soldiers ev-
erywhere, and it was not long before
there were sailors, to, or at least ma
rines, marching along the boulevard
on their way, as everybody supposed,
to Antwerp to maneuver the heavy
austrian siege guns that were being
moved up. Then the ambulances be-
gan to bear wounded into the city,
and after three weeks of idleness the
railroads were again in operation,
manned now by Germans in blue uni
forms, and when the trains that jolt
ed over the crossing at the rue Bel
lard were not bearing wounded in
our direction they were putting and
straining in the other direction
loaded with cannon to wound other
men to be brought back on the return
trip. With the resumption of an in
termittent train service, which by the
way OF Maerstricht could take one
into Holland, those who could obtain
passierschiens began to leave the
city. The American colony dwin-
died. The few diplomats remaining
began to &c. Count Clary ct DIAL
drigen, the Austrian minister, act
ing dean of the diplomatic corps, had
turned the Austrian legation
over to me, and now the Clarys were
gone. They were sad to leave Brus-
sells; they had lived there for eleven
years, and were very popular. Barros-
Moreira was only waiting for a
special train to take out his Brazilian
colony.
The Bottara-Costas were going
bask to Italy: Gravenskop-Casten-
skiold. the Danish minister, was leav-
ing, and had turned his legation over
to me. We babe them goodbye
there in the Care du Nord, Uttered
with straw, filled with cannon, crowd
cd with ill-smelling soldiers, long