Early in the week Jack is to be sent down to Mons, to bring out some English nurses who have been there nursing the British wounded. Two of them, Miss Hozier and Miss Angela Manners, were in yesterday. They have been working hard during the past three months and are now ready to go back to England if we can arrange for passports.
Under the date of November 26th, General von Kraewel announces that he has succeeded Baron von Lüttwitz, who has been transferred to the army at the front.
Hoover arrived from London this afternoon accompanied by Shaler and by Dr. Rose, Henry James, Jr., and Mr. Bicknell of the Rockefeller Foundation, who have come to look into conditions. There is plenty for them to see, and we shall do our best to help them see it.
As we learned from a confidential source, several days ago, there has been a big shake-up in the Government here. Both von der Goltz and von Lüttwitz have gone and have been replaced—the first by Freiherr von Bissing, and the latter by General von Kraewel. There are several explanations for the changes, but we don't yet know what they mean.
Brussels, December 2, 1914.—We have had a hectic time. Hoover arrived on Sunday evening, accompanied by Shaler and by three representatives of the Rockefeller Foundation. We have had a steady rush of meetings, conferences, etc., and Hoover and Shaler pulled out early this morning. There is not much relief in sight, however, for to-morrow morning at the crack of dawn, I expect to start off on a tour of Belgium, to show the Rockefeller people what conditions really are. We shall be gone for several days and shall cover pretty well the whole country.
Yesterday morning I got Jack off to Mons to bring back the British nurses. Everything in the way of passports and arrangements with the military authorities had been made, and he went away in high spirits for a little jaunt by himself. This morning at half-past three o'clock he rang the doorbell and came bristling in, the maddest man I have seen in a long time. He had suffered everything that could be thought of in the way of insult and indignity, and to make it worse, had been obliged to stand by and watch some brutes insult the girls he was sent down to protect. When he arrived at Mons he got the nurses together and took them to the headquarters, where he explained that he had been sent down by the Minister with the consent of the German authorities, to bring the nurses to Brussels. This was stated in writing on the passport given him by the German authorities here. Instead of the polite reception he had expected, the German officer, acting for the Commandant, turned on him and told him that the nurses were to be arrested, and could not go to Brussels. Then, by way of afterthought, he decided to arrest Jack and had him placed under guard on a long bench in the headquarters, where he was kept for three hours. Luckily, an old gentleman of the town who knew the nurses, came in on some errand, and before they could be shut up, they contrived to tell him what the situation was and ask him to get word to the Legation. Right away after this the three women were taken out and put in the fourth-class cells of the military prison, that is, in the same rooms with common criminals. Jack was left in the guard room. The old gentleman, who had come in, rushed off to the Burgomaster and got him stirred up about the case, although he was loath to do anything, as he knew that a representative of the American Legation could not be arrested. Finally he did come around to headquarters, and after a long row with the Adjutant, they got Jack released and fitted out with a laisser-passer to return to Brussels. He was insulted in good shape, and told that if he came back again, sent by the Minister or by anybody else, he would be chucked into jail and stay there. Before the nurses were taken down to their prison, the Adjutant shook his fist in Miss Hozier's face, and told her that they were going to give her a good lesson, so that the English should have a taste of the sort of treatment they were meting out to German nurses and doctors that fell into their hands.
The Mayor and Aldermen took Jack in charge when he was released, and kept him in one of their homes until time for the train to leave for Brussels at midnight. They were convinced that he would be arrested again at the station, but he did get off in a car filled with sick soldiers and arrived here without mishap at three o'clock or a little after.
I went over to see von der Lancken the first thing in the morning, and told him the whole story, in order that he might be thinking over what he was going to do about it before the Minister went over to see him at eleven. The Minister said his say in plain language, and got a promise that steps would be taken at once to get the girls out of prison and have them brought to Brussels. Later in the day von der Lancken came through with the information that the action of the authorities at Mons was "due to a misunderstanding," and that everything was lovely now. We suppose that the girls will be here to-morrow; if not, inquiries will be made and the Minister will probably go down himself.
Yesterday morning we spent visiting soup kitchens, milk stations, and the distributing centres for supplying old clothes to the poor. The whole thing is under one organisation and most wonderfully handled. It is probably the biggest thing of the sort that has ever been undertaken and is being done magnificently.