ghter groped among the ruins. They were the sole living creatures in
the whole town.

"Shops, factories, churches, and houses of the wealthy--all were
similarly destroyed. One qualification only have I to make of this
statement: Two or perhaps three houses bore the German command in chalk
that they were not to be burned. These remained standing, but deserted,
amid the ruins on either side. Where a destroyed house had obviously
contained articles of value looting had taken place.

"I inquired what had become of the population. It was a question to
which no direct reply could be given. They had fled in all directions.
Some had reached Antwerp, but a greater number were wandering about the
country, panic-stricken and starving. Many were already dead.

"What happened at Termonde was similar to what had happened in other
parts of Belgium under military occupation of Germany. The result is
that conditions have been set up for the civilian population throughout
the occupied territory of unexampled misery. Comparatively few refugees
have reached this country. Others remain wandering about Belgium,
flocking into other towns and villages, or flying to points a little way
across the Dutch frontier.

"Sometimes when a town has been bombarded the Germans have withdrawn and
the civilians have returned to their homes, only to flee again at the
renewed attack. A case in point is Malines, which, on Sunday last, as I
was about to try to reach it, was again bombarded. The inhabitants were
then unable to leave, as the town was surrounded, but when the
bombardment ceased there was a great exodus.

"The whole life of the nation has been arrested. Food supplies which
would ordinarily reach the civilian population are being taken by the
German troops for their own support. The peasants and poor are without
the necessities of life, and conditions of starvation grow more acute
every day. Even where there is a supply of wheat available the peasants
are not allowed to use their windmills, owing to the German fear that
they will send signals to the Belgian Army.

"We are, therefore, face to face with a fact which has rarely, if ever,
occurred in the history of the world--an entire nation is in a state of
famine, and that within half a day's journey of our own shores.

"The completeness of the destruction in each individual case was
explained to me later by the Belgian Ministers, who described numerous
appliances which the German soldiers car