ns which were likewise settled had particular
reference to intermediary officers, interpreters, gendarmes, maps,
photographs of the uniforms, special copies, translated into English,
of some Belgian regulations, the regulations concerning the import
duties on English provisions, to the accommodation of the wounded of
the allied armies, &c. Nothing was resolved on as regards the activity
which the Government or the military authorities might exert on the
press....
"During the final meetings which I had with the British Attache, he
informed me about the numbers of troops which would be daily
disembarked at Boulogne, Calais, and Cherbourg. The distance of the
last place, which is necessary for technical considerations, will
involve a certain delay. The first corps would be disembarked on the
tenth day, and the second on the fifteenth day. Our railways would
carry out the transportation so that the arrival of the first corps,
either in the direction of Brussels-Louvain or of Namur-Dinant, would
be assured on the eleventh day, and that of the second on the
sixteenth day.
"I again, for a last time, and as emphatically as I could, insisted on
the necessity of hastening the sea transports so that the English
troops could be with us between the eleventh and twelfth day. The
happiest and most favorable results can be reached by a convergent and
simultaneous action of the allied forces. But if that co-operation
should not take place, the failure would be most serious. Col.
Barnardiston assured me that everything serving to this end would be
done....
"In the course of our conversations, I had occasion to convince the
British Military Attache that we were willing, so far as possible, to
thwart the movements of the enemy and not to take refuge in Antwerp
from the beginning.
"Lieut. Col. Barnardiston on his part told me that, at the time, he
had little hope for any support or intervention on the part of
Holland. At the same time he informed me that his Government intended
to transfer the basis of the British commissariat from the French
coast to Antwerp as soon as all German ships were swept off the North
Sea....
"In all our conversations the Colonel regularly informed me about the
secret news which he had concerning the military circumstances and the
situation of our eastern neighbors, &c. At the same time he emphasized
that Belgium was under the imperative necessity to keep herself
constantly informed of the happenings
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