through--von Arnim--got out
a proclamation to-day which was posted in the streets, warning the
inhabitants that they would be called upon for supplies and might have
troops quartered upon them, and that if they ventured upon hostile acts
they would suffer severely.

PROCLAMATION.

BRUSSELS, August 20, 1914.

German troops will pass through Brussels to-day and the following
days, and will be obliged by circumstances to call upon the city
for lodging, food, and supplies. All these requirements will be
settled for regularly through the communal authorities.

I expect the population to meet these necessities of war without
resistance, and especially that there shall be no aggression
against our troops, and that the supplies required shall be
promptly furnished.

In this case I give every guarantee for the preservation of the
city and the safety of its inhabitants.

If, however, as has unfortunately happened in other places, there
are attacks upon our troops, firing upon our soldiers, fires or
explosions of any sort, I shall be obliged to take the severest
measures.

The General Commanding the Army Corps,
SIXT VON ARNIM.

The strongest thing so far was the series of demands made upon the city
and Province. The city of Brussels has been given three days to hand
over 50 million francs in coin or bills. The Germans also demand a
tremendous supply of food to be furnished during the next three days. If
the city fails to deliver any part of it, it must pay in coin at a rate
equal to twice the market value of the supplies. The Province of Brabant
must hand over, by the first of next month, 450 millions of francs--90
million dollars. When you consider that the total war indemnity imposed
by Germany upon France in 1870 was only five milliards, the enormity of
this appears. Upon one little province of a tiny country they are
imposing a tax equal to one-tenth that imposed on the whole of France.
How on earth they are ever to arrange to pay it, I cannot possibly see.
I do not know what is to happen if they fail to make good, but I have no
doubt that it will be something pretty dreadful.

This afternoon the Germans went into the Ministry of War and the Foreign
Office, and searched through the archives. It must have been an entirely
futile proceeding, f