forget it, other peoples have begun to
take stock of us. We have been getting all the credit. Have we deserved
it? We lay claim to idealism, to devotion to duty and to great
benevolence, but now the acid test is being applied to us. This has a
wider import than mere figures. Time and time again, when the door to
Belgium threatened to close, we have defended its portals by the
assertion that this was an American enterprise; that the sensibilities
of the American people would be wounded beyond measure, would be
outraged, if this work were interfered with. Our moral strength has been
based upon this assertion. I believe it is true, but it is difficult in
the face of the figures to carry conviction. And in the last six or
eight months time and again we have felt our influence slip from under
us."

The statement that Germans had taken food intended for the Belgians was
disposed of by Mr. Hoover in a speech in New York City. "We are
satisfied," he said, "that the German army has never eaten one-tenth of
one per cent of the food provided. The Allied governments never would
have supplied us with two hundred million dollars if we were supplying
the German army. If the Germans had absorbed any considerable quantity
of this food the population of Belgium would not be alive today."

The plan of operation of the Belgian Commission needs some description.
Besides the headquarters in London there was an office in Brussels, and,
as Rotterdam was the port of entry for all Belgian supplies, a
transshipping office for commission goods was opened in that city. The
office building was at 98 Haringvliet, formerly the residence of a Dutch
merchant prince.

Captain J. F. Lucey, the first Rotterdam director, sat in a roomy office
on the second floor overlooking the Meuse. From his windows he could see
the commission barges as they left for Belgium, their huge canvas flags
bearing the inscription "Belgian Relief Committee." He was a nervous,
big, beardless American, a volunteer who had left his business to
organize and direct a great transshipping office in an alien land for an
alien people.

Out of nothing he created a large staff of clerks, wrung from the Dutch
Government special permits, loaded the immense cargoes received from
England into canal boats, obtained passports for cargoes and crews, and
shipped the foodstuffs consigned personally to Mr. Brand Whitlock.

Something of what was done at this point may be understood from a
refer