The Washington times., 1919-10-31
By the REV. DR. JOHN VAN
sCHAICk, Jr-
President of the Beard of EducatfoE
and formerly Americas Red Cros.
Commi.aioner 10 Beixfum-

sthAlCAs Sr-
President of the Board of Edueatfen
and formerly Americas Red Cros.
Conni.aioner 20 Beixiam-
In the last year of the war, Glenn
enceau visited King Albert in the
little corner Of the Belgium Kingdom
which the Germans never conquer
ed They went together up TO see
Newport. where the long line of
trenches across Europe. reaches the
sea- In the fat Flanders plain, Nieu-
port on the dunes seems set on a hill.
Drawing toward. it the-swell of the
ground at least always kept one out
Of sight OF the Germans.
But as one went up the gentle
slope into the village. one came fair
ly into view, not only of the great
dune so long a fayorite watching
place OF the Germans but OF the men
In their trenches as well. II was al
ways an awful place"-this Nieu-
port Gas. shell, machine gun, min
newerfer, made It dangerous prao-
tically every day. There were the
periods of comparative calm, to be
sure, but II never was rated a quiet
sector,
Neither Clemenceau nor King AL
bert ever seemed to be looking for
quiet sectors, but for important sec
tors.
Never Changed Pace.
This particular day they had left
their motor behind the dunes and
were advancing slowly along the
road on foot, with two or three aides
following. Whether their cars had
been observed from one of the Ger
man balloons or IL just happened to
be the time for this spot on the map,
don't know, but suddenly there was
q crash a little way off at their
right and smoke, dirt, and timbers
rose together in the air. Aides start
ed suddenly as IL to rush the party to
shelter, but neither the King nor the
great prime minister altered their
pace in the slightest, or changed the
tenor OF their talk.
Again came the angry whine OF
shell, which fell behind them along
the way they had come. Then came
a thud little to the left. They were
lucky. They didn't happen to be un-
der. Only when they reached the
center of the yellow ruins which
once was the city OF Iieuport, and
when the shelling had much in
creased, did the King quietly lead his
visitor down into an abri, much as II
one would step under a great tree in
a shower.
That quiet walk up the slope TO
Nieuport, however, in a moment OF
great danger; that entire attention to
the matter in hand regardless OF
shells, Is characteristic Of the King of
the Belgians.
Nobody has ever been able to say
that he has seen King Albert strut
In any inaugural parade at Washing
ton one can find a half a dozen gov
ernors acting UP better to the tradi-
tional part OF a monarch than this
real King from the old world
Plain and Unaffected.
He is plain, simple, unaffected and
genuine. In his mental operations,
Belgians will tell you that he is very
different than his uncle King Leopold
III. Leopold Deux was a genius"
they will say. III he had been alive,
by sheer force OF intellect he would
be a dominating figure in every in
terallied council in this war" This
Is not to say that King Albert Is
stupid. but that he thinks more slow
ly. He studies things out. He has
patient, persistent, solid qualities Of
mind. He burns the midnight oil
readlng. he talks SLOWLY and patient
ly with men, drawing out their ideas
He goes to see mills, dams and
dikes and Improved farms. He is by
training and strong natural bent an
engineer-and then he mulIs over II
and suggests or decides, and his most
brilliant ministers say that what he
says is worth listening to on it's own
account and not simply because he is
the King.
When ii comes to moral qualities,
even the most devoted of the old
courtiers. who clung TO Leopold III,
admit that there Is little comparison.
Leopold VS.. Albert.
never saw Belgian who would
admit that Leopold III had a square
deal In England and America in the
Congo atrocity business. at was