New Britain herald., 1919-10-18
By tISEDEEkIGk M.ANEAFLl.I.

f NNoPNflSu DN Frederick MaNWelD.
 'Thcre is not much to tell" was
 tha answer Like yourself ain
 British. l was an ambulance driver just behind the line, and was sta toned close to Gou1eacourt. On the night of November 3Oth I wanted 70
 20 Mto Gou1cacourt to visit frien,l ln tho village, 1 dressed myself in
 thc uniform O a soldier in C-jcr to
 avoid being turned back,
 JnfortuNotcl:, the Gc3rears 5e-
 }act"d that very night for the coun-
 tc"-2ttaci, w?.ich followed on our
 saecc12fu! operations around Cam
 hrai on November 22, 1917. and when
 the flood tide Of ncli, :5rcys broke
 through was captured with she rest
 of the troops, My brother and my stTe9thc"~t, whom | had gone to sec,
 sver" tcrrinl:~ distressed at ny cap
 tu-e, bN, dared 60 tell the truth for
 fear ti worse fate should bcf2ll me.
 In tho march here l lost traco of
 them.
 'I was frantic with terror when I
 saw you watching us pass through
 the streets. Something prompted me
 to beg your assistance. l think it was
 nothing short of miraculous. I am
 so glad to be free again, but I am
 still anxious lest I should expose you
 to the vengeance of the Germans
 when they find I have escaped. It
 was very good of you to risk your
 life for mine. I hope the Germans
 will not punish any of the others for
 my escape. I am told that they all ways do that"
 I appreciated the girls concern about me, but l was not worried for myself. I know all the risks I ran day by day, and was ready to face anything for the sake of helping these helpless prisoners, but I was anxious about her, because I knew that if she were discovered in this uniform her life would be forfeited.
 1t was sometime before we could l get the Allied governments to recog- nize our work, and give us the as SistanCC we got from the Belgian government from the start. Had the British and French governments been alive to the possibilities from the first far more might have been achieved than was actually the case. IT. was hard for me to understand the reluctance of these governments
 
 get an explanation bordering on tho
 satisfactory until I came to London
 after the armistice. Then I learned
 that the reason why the British gov ernment refused for so long to recog-
 nize and assist us was the fear of bringing down on our heads and on the heads of the civil population un- connected with us the vengeance of the German authorities, who had in formed the Allied governm ents at the outset of the war that it was their in- tention to deal in the most severe manner with any attempt on the part of civilians behind the German lines to hamper the movements of Ger man troops or aid the Allies in any way.
 Until the British government was induced by circumstances to join forces with us in spite of fears, the only cooperation with outside agen- cies was unofficial, mostly coming from the airmen and the agents of the Allies, who sometimes appeared I in occupied Belgium.
 comparatively early in the war we had established informal relations with the British and French head quarters, the link between us beins the airmen who frequently came be- tween the lines to seek information rgarding the movements of German troops. In this way I made the ac- quaintance of Vedrines, Garros, Fonck, Ball, MCudden, Robinson, and other French and British airmen who frequently risked their lives be- hind the German line in quest of in- ] formation that was vital to the AL lied command.
 It was to the late Captain Ball, when I met him outside Brussels in