red. What food supplies we found here
we took charge of to prevent their being plundered, and also because we,
as a belligerent, had to supply our own necessities; that is the right
of war. But by no means have we used up all the food supplies ourselves,
nor set them aside for our own use; but a large part has been set aside
for this commission, to be used for the poor, and another part will be
given back in a short time for trade purposes, so that commerce will be
revived again.

"There is no place in Belgium where the people have starved. Their most
pressing need now would appear to be money, for many are unemployed and
many others disinclined to work. At one place where we were told the
people were starving we found stores crammed full of food--but the
inhabitants had no money and the shopkeepers wouldn't give them credit.

"Everything is being done by us to revive business so that the people
can again earn money. If America had not been so tender-hearted as to
send foodstuffs, and if the food supply had run out, we should certainly
have considered it our duty to bring food from Germany, for we are for
the time being the Government here, and it is our duty to see that the
people do not starve."

German newspaper readers are not aware that their Kaiser had a narrow
escape from the bombs of the Allies' airmen at Thielt, for the fact of
the War Lord's recent invasion of Belgium has been kept as nearly a dead
secret as possible. I learned from an especially well-informed source in
Brussels that the object of the Kaiser's visit was not only to encourage
his troops but to reprove his Generals. According to this informant, who
is frequently in touch with high officers in their more mellow moods,
when military reticence somewhat relaxes, the Kaiser was said to be in a
towering rage at the failure of his army to make headway against the
English and Belgians on the coast, and to have decided to go in person
to see about it; also there has been considerable cautiously veiled
criticism of his persistent "interference" in the conduct of the
campaign.

Having last seen the Kaiser two weeks ago motoring at the German Great
Headquarters in Eastern France, I picked up his trail at Louvain,
through which place he passed by night a week ago in a special train in
the direction of Lille, after a scouting pilot engine had returned and
reported "all safe." On his return journey from Flanders he was rumored
to have "put up" at the Palai