ve children, pinched-
faced children, kept warm by sweaters that some American or
English children spared, happy in that they did not know what their
elders knew! Not the danger of physical starvation so much as the
actual presence of mental starvation was the thing that got on your
nerves in a land where the sun is seldom seen in winter and rainy
days are the rule. It was bad enough in the "zone of occupation," so
called, a line running from Antwerp past Brussels to Mons. One could
guess what it was like in the military zone to the westward, where only
an occasional American relief representative might go.

This is not saying that the Germans were stricter than necessary, if
we excuse the exasperation of their militarism, in order to prevent
information from passing out, when a multitude of Belgians would
have risked their lives gladly to help the Allies. One spy bringing
accurate information might cost the German army thousands of
casualties; perhaps decide the fate of a campaign. They saw the
Belgians as enemies. They were fighting to take the lives of their
enemies and save their own lives, which made it tough for them and
the French and the British--tough all round, but very particularly tough
for the Belgians.

It was good for a vagrant American to dine at the American Legation,
where Mr. and Mrs. Whitlock were far, very far, from the days in
Toledo, Ohio, where he was mayor. Some said that the place of the
Minister to Belgium was at Havre, where the Belgian Government
had its offices; but neither Whitlock nor the Belgian people thought
so, nor the German Government, since they had realized his prestige
with the Belgians and how they would listen to him in any crisis when
their passions might break the bonds of wisdom. Hugh Gibson, being
the omnipresent Secretary of Legation in four languages, naturally
was also present. We recalled dining together in Honduras, when he
was in the thick of vexations.

Trouble accommodatingly waits for him wherever he goes, because
he has a gift for taking care of trouble, in the ascendancy of a
cheerful spirit and much knowledge of international law. His present
for the Minister, who daily received stacks of letters from all sources
asking the impossible, as well as from Americans who wanted to be
sure that the food they gave was not being purloined by the
Germans, was a rubber stamp, "Blame-it-all-there's-a-state-of-war-in-
Belgium!" which he suggested might save typewriting--