ents, but so far nothing has
happened to justify the panic.

This morning a Belgian priest, the Abbe Upmans, came in to say that he
had several hundred Germans under his care and wanted some provision
made for getting them away before the situation got any worse.

After talking the matter over with the Minister and getting his
instructions, I took the Abbe in tow, and with Monsieur de Leval went to
the Foreign Office to see about getting a special train to take these
people across the border into Holland and thence to Germany. At first,
the suggestion was received with some resentment and I was told flatly
that there was no good reason for Belgium to hand over special trains to
benefit Germans when every car was needed for military operations. I
pleaded that consideration must be shown these helpless people and that
this course was just as much in the interest of Belgium as of anybody
else, as it would remove the danger of violence with possible reprisals
and would relieve the overworked police force of onerous duties. After
some argument, Baron Donny went with me to the Surete Publique where we
went over the matter again with the Chief. He got the point at once, and
joined forces with us in a request to the Minister of Railways for a
special train. We soon arranged matters as far as the Belgian frontier.
I then telephoned through to The Hague, got Marshal Langhorne and asked
him to request the Dutch Government to send another train to the
frontier to pick our people up and send them through to Germany. He went
off with a right good will to arrange that, and I hope to have an answer
in the morning.

We plan to start the train on Friday morning at four o'clock, so as to
get our people through the streets when there are few people about. We
are making it known that all Germans who wish to leave should put in an
appearance by that time, and it looks as though we should have from
seven hundred to a thousand to provide for. It will be a great relief to
get them off, and I hold my breath until the train is safely gone.

The Belgian Government is making no distinction between Germans, and is
letting those liable for military service get away with the others.

Wild stories have begun to circulate about what is bound to happen to
Americans and other foreigners when hostilities get nearer to Brussels,
and we have had to spend much time that could have been devoted to
better things in calming a lot of excitable people of both