on I went around to headquarters to get a
_laisser-passer_ to take Harold Fowler back to England. While the
matter was being attended to, an officer came in and told me that Baron
von der Lancken wanted very much to see me. When I went into his room,
he said that there was nothing in particular that he wanted to see me
about, but that he thought I would be interested in hearing the news and
in telling him something of my trip. We talked along for some time about
things in general, and then he told me that the movement of troops
toward the coast was progressing rapidly and that the Belgian Government
would soon be driven from the country. Then putting the tips of his
fingers together and looking me coyly in the eye, he inquired: "And then
my dear colleague, what will be your position?" He elaborated by
pointing out that the Government, to which we are accredited, having
left the country, we would be merely in the position of foreigners of
distinction residing here, and that we would have no official rank or
standing. The idea evidently is that they do not care to have us around
any longer than they can help.

I later learned that Villalobar had been more ready than I with his
retort. In the course of a call later in the afternoon, Lancken had
talked the same matter over with him, and had wound up with the same
genial question: "And then my dear colleague, what will be your
position?" Without any hesitation, Villalobar replied: "My situation
will be just the same as yours. We are both representatives of our
country in a country not our own. We shall continue to owe each other
respect, and to make the best of conditions."

The latest news we have this afternoon is to the effect that the
Government has been driven from Ostend, presumably to the Isle of
Guernsey. It would be pleasant, in a way, to retire to a retreat of that
sort for a few months' rest, but I fear there is nothing of that sort in
store.

To-day I ran across an order from the Governor-General forbidding
civilians to ride bicycles. The order concludes as follows:

Civilians who, in spite of this, continue to ride bicycles, expose
themselves to being shot by German troops.

If a cyclist is suspected of planning to damage railroad, telegraph
or telephone lines, or of the intention of attacking German troops,
he will be shot according to martial law.

Apparently it is no longer necessary to go through the forms of proving
that