how the Government of any neutral country permits the publication of
newspaper articles that can have but one effect, and that is to
encourage revolt in a captured people. A country likes to call itself
humanitarian, and yet it persists in allowing the publication of
articles that only excite an ignorant, undisciplined people and lead
them to acts of violence that must be wiped out by force," and the
Governor General's mouth closed with a click.

"Do you know that the people of Brussels, whenever a strong wind carries
the booming of heavy guns miles in from the front, think that French and
English are going to recapture the city? Any day that we can hear the
guns faintly, we know that there is an undercurrent of nervous
expectancy running through the whole city. It goes down alleys and
avenues and fills the cafés. You can see Belgians standing together,
whispering. Twice they actually set the date when King Albert would
return.

"This excitement and unrest, and the feeling of the English coming in,
is fostered and encouraged by the articles in French and neutral
newspapers that are smuggled in. I do not anticipate any uprising among
the Belgians, although the thoughtless among them have encouraged it. An
uprising is not a topic of worry in our councils. It could do us no
harm. We would crush it out like that," and von Bissing snapped his thin
fingers, "but if only for the sake of these misled and betrayed people,
all seditious influences should cease."

I asked the Governor General the attitude of officials of the Belgian
Government who were being used by the Germans in directing affairs.

"My predecessor, General von der Goltz," he replied, "informed me that