and Whitlock,
United States Ambassador,
Brussels.

DEAR SIR:

As a native American citizen, born in Ohio, and now imprisoned by
the German authorities, I claim your intervention in my behalf. I am
thirty years of age, resident of East Boston, Massachusetts, for six
years. I am a graduate of Marietta College, Hartford Seminary, and
studied in Cambridge University in England, and Marburg
University in Germany.

Saturday Mr. Van Hee, the American consul at Ghent, brought me
here by automobile with Mr. Fletcher. Obliged to take back in his
car three ladies for whom he obtained permission from the
German Government, I was necessarily left behind; Mr. Van Hee
promising to return for me when diplomatic business brought him
to Brussels in a few days. Meantime I took a room at the Hotel
Metropole. From it I was taken by the German authorities this
morning. I do not know exactly what the charge against me is. I am
accused of offering money for information relative to the
movement of the German troops. I think that the man who worked
up the case against me is a Dutchman with whom I spoke upon a
car. He volunteered the information that he had been everywhere
by automobile; and I asked him if he was the one who carried
passengers out of Brussels by way of Liege and Aix-la-Chapelle.
Won't you look into my case at once? Mr. Fletcher, who called on
you Saturday, lent me some fifty dollars, so I am all right that way;
but this is not a comfortable situation to be in, though the officers
are very decent. If you want proof of my identity, you can
communicate with the following people in America; they are my
personal friends, and will confirm my absence from home on an
extended vacation.

His Excellency Governor Walsh, of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts; Dr. Charles Fleischer, Chief Rabbi in the
Rabbinate of New England.

(If there was any Jewish blood on the German Staff I was going to
try to get the benefit of it.)

The Honorable George W. Coleman, of the Ford Hall Convocation
Meetings and President of the Pilgrim Amalgamated Associated
Advertising Clubs of America.

(Coleman being a cross between a Baptist deacon and an
anarchist, I knew that he would not object to this bit of sabotage.)

The Right Honorable William W. Mills, Esquire, President of the
First National Bank of Marietta, Ohio, Treasurer of the University of
Marietta, and Member of the National Council of Congregational
Churches of America, etc., etc.

If