ienced the slightest unpleasantness.
Further, von Below expressed the conviction that only single instances
of such excesses had occurred and these were a result of the quarrelsome
Walloon character. No village _fete_ passes off among them without such
outbreaks, accompanied by bloodshed.[100]

[Footnote 100: This may be true, but von Below could have said the same
with absolute truth of German village fairs, _Kirmesse_, etc.--Author.]

German papers of August 15th reported this official version, and four
days later a proclamation was issued by State Secretary Dr. Delbrueck,
calling upon all persons who had been ill-treated in Belgium to report
themselves, so that the "numerous" newspaper reports could be confirmed
or refuted. The result of the inquiry has never been published.

From a number of witnesses who testified whole-heartedly to Belgian
kindness, one will suffice. A lady reported her adventures in the
_Vorwaerts_ of September 6th, from which the following sentences have
been gleaned. "Even if it is true that Germans were subjected to
inconsideration and ill-treatment during their flight from Belgium,
still there are hundreds of Germans who, like myself, met with generous
sympathy and unstinted help.

"A Flemish servant refused her month's wages, saying that her employers
would need it on the journey. Many Germans were offered homes in Belgian
families till the war was over. My own landlord in Brussels placed an
empty flat at my disposal for German refugees. At parting he and his
wife were as deeply moved as we, and when I began to make excuses for
being unable to pay the rent, she at once prevented me from speaking
another word. My husband was provided with a hat which looked less
'German;' they filled our pockets with provisions for the journey, and
after his wife had embraced me and my child we left the house in
silence.

"German refugees whom I met afterwards, related hundreds of similar acts
of kindness. When such severe accusations are raised against the entire
Belgian people, justice demands this statement that Belgians in hundreds
of cases, uninfluenced by the prevailing bitterness, showed themselves
kindly, helpful and humane towards the Germans."

In the second month of the war two representatives of the Social
Democratic Party received special permission from the General Staff to
visit Belgium and the theatre of war in Northern France. Their report
has been issued by the Vorwaerts Publishing Hou