is time. I went with them to the Belgian Legation, and
after a talk with the Belgian Minister, we got things started.

As the food was intended for the civil population of Brussels, it was
necessary to get the Belgian Minister to secure from the Foreign Office
permission to ship it through the blockade. He felt that he must have
some instructions from the Government at Antwerp for his guidance in the
matter, so I telegraphed at some length, with the result that he had
ample instructions before the sun went down. The next day he made three
or four calls at the Foreign Office and matters were got under way.

Shaler is buying the food and getting it ready for shipment, and now all
that is holding things up is the actual permission to go ahead and ship.
Shaler has had some talk on the general problems that confront us with
Herbert Hoover, an American mining engineer, who has given some very
helpful ideas and may do more still.

Shaler and Couchman had an experience at Liege they did not particularly
relish. They were pulled up by a Landsturm guard somewhere in Liege,
taken to the Kommandantur, where it was discovered that they were
carrying a number of messages of the
"We-are-well-and-hope-you-are-the-same" variety. Without discussion they
were pushed into cells and treated to talk that gave them little
comfort. They spent the night in jail, but by some means contrived to
get word to the Consul, who arrived and delivered them before breakfast.
It evidently grieved the Germans that they could not take these two out
and shoot them, but they yielded with a bad grace and turned them loose
to hasten to the Consul's breakfast table.

* * * * *

_Brussels, October 11, 1914._--On Saturday afternoon late I went with
Harold Fowler to call on Sir Claude MacDonald, who had been to the
Embassy twice to see me about the English Red Cross nurses in Brussels.
I tried to reassure him as to their safety, but he went to see the
Ambassador later in the day and asked him to send Harold Fowler back to
Brussels with me to bring the nurses out. This suited me perfectly, so
we made preparations to get off together.

On Sunday evening we left Fenchurch Street at six, with a little group
of friends to see us off. About the only other people on the train were
a King's Messenger, a bankrupt Peer and his Man Friday, and a young
staff officer. Each set of us had a separate compartment and travelled