ANTWERP IN WAR TIME

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2282, 16 October 1914, Page 2

ANTWERP IN WAR TIME

'A. LADY'S LETTER. In n letter which has been received by friends in Wellington, a lady who is an artist and has known Belgium intimately for years, writes- of Antwerp as it was when war first broko out:— "We were awfully excited as you may. imagine," sho writes! "When war was ■declared against Belgium there was a panic—no shop would accept bank notes nor give any change. Tho men were all called on to servo in tho a.rmy. On Wednesday morning, when wo wero about to move house—our beds taken' to pieces and all our goods and chattels ready for their travels by tho cart that was to come at eight in the morning, we waited. For hours we waited I No cart came. All tho horses had been taken for the army. We stood on tho balcony watching the soldiers flying up and down below. All the women were standing about at their doors and windows. Tho woman at tho little shop next door was ospeoially excited. All at once a squad of soldiers marched up and todk possession of tho menago; in our street a guard was set at the door and great wagon loads of barrels of fiour-TSome said brought up and stored there. "The next day, after we had finally moved, wo were told that M. de Barry, of the well-known banking house, had been taken as a spy, his' nouse confiscated, and he himself was to be shot. For ten years he had been noting as a spy in Belgium. He had had an underground passage built underneath his house for escape to another house near by. M. Edward de Barry (his brother) had ram away on the night of Tuesday, but we afterwards heard that he was taken at the frontier and shot also. De Barry's two sons were also taken ■and shot. Weber's, the great hotel in Antwerp, was seized and found to be ono great arsenal. _ In fact, all the rich Germans (Malincrot, Lureinan, etc.) wore in it. Oh I the horror of it I can never te11!"... Next day I heard that Miss Ktihlnian, at whose place wo had had also been taken, but when I rushed to her house I found it was not true. Sho had certainly been taken to prison. However, she was given her freedom. Wo advised her to leave, and she decided to givo her great house to tho Red Cross just as if was, and leave the country. Wo have heard nothing more,and do not know what has become of her.

i "On Saturday, August 9, wo were advised by' friends to go at once to England while wo could. AVc decided to ■do so, but first of all called upon Lady Hertalep, tho ivife of the Consul, who was busy making shirts for tho soldiers. ■ She wanted me to stay and l:elp her with' the, Kod Cross English Hospital she was gotting ready in the great hotel belonging to Madame Furmeau, an old German lady, who hnd been expelled. with the rest. We finished our packing at 11 p.m. that Saturday ovening, and next morning at ■" o'clock we wore up, and at 7 o'clock wo left for Ostnnd, there to catch our steamer for Fblkstone. Tlirco times on the way wo wero stopped by armed soldiers, who asked for our passports. Think of passports in our own beloved Belgium towns." My passport, nearly thirty years old, and covered with Greek, Arabic and Gorman names, nearly lost me, for the soldier examining cried: "Cela est - Allomande!" "Yes!" I said, "and half a dozen other languages besides." Then ho let mo go. You see, Ho thought I might be a German escaping with my sister. Antwerp, being in a stato of siege, every German and Austrian had been or was being expelled, except spies, who wero shot. ■At last we reached Ostcnd. There all was! calm. At tho boat, soldiers., instead of tho usual officials, recalled to us' the grim reality of war. We had first to give pur names, ages, and addresses, etc., before going on board. A few minutes late we saw our bdoved Belgian coast fading away like a. dream, and lonviivr lyhinrl us all we possessed to the fortune of war.