e ground. In Malines a
good part of the town is standing and I suppose that the Cathedral can
be restored, but the other towns are done for. There were practically no
civilians in any of them--a few poor peasants poking dismally about in
the ruins, trying to find some odds and ends that they could save from
the general wreck. There were some children sitting on the steps of
deserted houses and a few hungry dogs prowling around, but no other
signs of life. All the way from the outskirts of Brussels straight
through to Antwerp, the road was lined with empty bottles. They gave a
pretty good idea of what had gone on along the line of march.

The bombardment of Antwerp lasted from the afternoon that we left up to
Friday noon. The damage is pretty evenly distributed. Houses here and
there in every street were badly smashed and the whole block across the
street from the Hotel St. Antoine, where we stayed, was burned to the
ground. The Cathedral was not damaged.

When we were there last week, the streets were thronged with people and
with motors. Yesterday there was not a soul to be seen for blocks
together. The town was practically deserted.

The garage where I had left my car had been taken over by the military
authorities. The car was put away on the second floor undamaged, but
also unrepaired, so we shall have to wait until things settle down a
little and we can get some work done. I shall have to go back to Antwerp
a little later and attend to that. There is some comfort in the fact
that the car has not been smashed.

This morning the Committee for the Provisioning of Brussels came in, and
asked whether I was prepared to go to London for them and endeavour to
arrange for some sort of permanent agreement with the British Government
for the provisioning of the civilian population of Belgium. I am
willing.

In the course of some errands this afternoon, I dropped in on Baronne
Lambert for a cup of tea. The Baron came in and then Villalobar. About
two minutes later, Lambert was called out of the room to speak with a
German officer, who demanded that he accompany him to headquarters.
Villalobar went with him to see what was up, and I stayed behind to see
if I could be of any use. We stood by for a little over half an hour,
and then when Mme. Lambert could stand it no longer, I jumped in my car
and went down to see what was happening. I found Villalobar on the
sidewalk, getting into his car. He was depressed and said that he