A Journal From Our Legation in BelgiumGibson, Hugh
History
A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium
Gibson, Hugh
Belgium -- History -- German occupation, 1914-1918
The Foreign Office has a pretty little villa in a pretty little garden
and keeps busy. I saw everybody, from Monsieur Davignon down to the
porters, and spent an hour and a half there. Then at their request I
went to the "Palace" and talked with General Jungbluth. He will try to
arrange my business for me by telegraph, and will let me know in the
morning whether I am to go up to the front to see the King and Queen.
When I came away from this call, Osborne was waiting for me and took me
down to the Consulate for an hour's talk. Then back to the hotel to dine
with Sir Francis. After dinner we all went out and bade the Colonel
farewell.
* * * * *
_Tuesday._--General Jungbluth was waiting for me when I came down this
morning, to say that I should go to the front. Osborne was waiting with
his car, and took me to the Ministry of War, to ask for a lift to
Dunkerque in a military car. As luck would have it, to-day's car had
left ten minutes before, so I was put off until to-morrow morning, when
I shall go up with the W----s. I have spent a good part of the day
getting my papers in order--both French and Belgian--and in the tiresome
occupation of being photographed.
* * * * *
_October 28th, Hotel des Arcades, Dunkerque._--Another one-night stand.
We cleared out of Havre this morning over muddy and slippery roads. It
rained hard all night, and we made good time by way of Fecamp, Dieppe,
Eu, Abbeville, Montreuil, Bologne, Marquise, and Calais, getting to
Dunkerque a little after four, just in time to smell the smoke of a
couple of bombs dropped by an aeroplane across the street from the
office of the Prime Minister, upon whom I called.
We began running into big bunches of troops at Abbeville--English,
French and Belgian. I saw some of the Indian troops doing sentry duty
and looking cold and uncomfortable, and did not blame them, for it was
raw and cheerless. The Rolls-Royce is a beauty and sailed along all day
like a gondola.
The Prime Minister had set up his office in the Mayor's room at the
Hotel de Ville, which I found in an uproar because of the bombs. The
Prime Minister was said to be at Headquarters, at Furnes, across the
Belgian frontier, and I was urged to go there to see him. We made
twenty-one kilometers there, in time to find that little town in a great
state of excitement, because three big shells had come from nobody knew
where, and burst by the railroad station.
But the Prime Minister was not there, and it was dark, so we gathered up
a guide and set off for la Panne, where the King and Queen are living.
Neither of them was there; nobody but a gendarme on duty. The King was
off with the troops and the Queen was looking after the wounded, who
have overflowed all the hospitals. In the past week--just this one
engagement--the Belgians have suffered 12,000 casualties.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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