_Photo_ (C) _International News Service._)]

[Illustration: Japanese Bluejackets Coming Ashore Near Tsing-Tau.

(_Photo from Paul Thompson._)]

[Illustration: The Defenders of Tsing-Tau Moving to the Outer Defenses
During the Siege.

(_Photo_ (C) _International News Service._)]

[Illustration: German Gun in the Bismarck Fortress, Tsing-Tau, Crumpled
by Japanese and British Shells

(_Photos by Paul Thompson._)]

Patriotism and Endurance

By Cardinal D.J. Mercier, Archbishop of Malines.

[_Copyright by Burns & Oates, Ltd., 28 Orchard Street, London. All
rights reserved._]

Here is the celebrated Christmas pastoral letter of Cardinal
Mercier, Archbishop of Malines. It is the first authentic
translated copy of the now famous document to be received in
America. The letter has caused a worldwide sensation because
of its bold appeal to the Belgian people. Its publication
resulted in the detention of the Cardinal by the Germans in
his palace and a consequent protest by the Pope and throughout
the whole Roman Catholic world.

The first reports of the arrest of the Cardinal were denied by
the German authorities. Subsequently an official report made
to the Pope stated that 15,000 copies of the pastoral letter
were seized in Malines and destroyed, the printer being fined;
that the Cardinal was detained in his palace during all Jan.
4; that he was prevented by German officers on Jan. 3 from
presiding at a religious ceremony; that they subjected him to
interrogations and demanded of him a retraction, which he
refused to make. The English reprint of the Cardinal's letter
is copyrighted by Burns & Oates, Ltd., 28 Orchard Street,
London. THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY reproduces it by
permission.

My Very Dear Brethren: I cannot tell you how instant and how present
thought of you has been to me throughout the months of suffering and of
mourning through which we have passed. I had to leave you abruptly on
the 20th of August in order to fulfill my last duty toward the beloved
and venerated Pope whom we have lost, and in order to discharge an
obligation of the conscience from which I could not dispense myself, in
the election of the successor of Pius X., the Pontiff who now directs
the Church under the title, full of promise and of hope, of Benedict XV.

It was in Rome itself that I received the tidings--stroke a