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246 WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
initial tour of inspection that these officers were engaged upon.
Among the discoveries made were several searchlights and old
guns and a couple of excellently constructed barricades of
cobble-stones and sheet-iron. The garrison seemed to have
been prepared for street fighting in the town itself, but things
had never got thus far. Huts built of boards, tarpaulins and
other materials had been put up for the defenders of the
barricades.
We had taken rooms at the Terminus Hotel, close by the
Central Railway Station. The German officers paid with bons
which are redeemed after the war, I in ready cash. The
dining-room was filled with officers, naval surgeons and
civilian German engineers who had come to repair the water-
works, gas-works, telegraphs and telephones. The shortage
of water had made itself felt very disagreeably, but at least
one could now get tea and soup, which had been an unobtain-
able luxury during the first two days, when we had to remain
satisfied with wine and beer. No doubt it was distilled Scheldt
water, or perhaps well-water which now figured in our soup
tureens and water-jugs.
The streets with gas-lighting were pitch-dark at night,
whilst the electrically lighted main streets were bathed in
their usual brightness. Many shop windows were now also
brilliantly lit, especially the tobacconist establishments, which
attracted crowds of German customers. In the restaurants
we saw the soldiers seated round the tables with their girl-
friends, drinking beer or coffee. In the large avenues the
traffic was almost animated. As long as daylight lasted we
saw little knots of fugitives returning from the Dutch side.
Their unkempt appearance, unwashed hands and faces and
uncombed hair showed that they had been lying out of doors
in the rain and cold and suffered great privations. Now they
were returning with their bundles, their children, basket
carriages, gramophones and other peculiar furniture, carried
on the back or in little barrows drawn by dogs or donkeys.
All looked calm and resigned. What else, indeed, could they
do ? In Holland they had been treated with great kindness
and hospitality. In Antwerp they were to find that paralysis
had seized upon all industries that gave them their livelihood.
Doubtless they have a hard winter before them, but the
Germans will, I subsequently heard, do all in their power to
lessen the distress, and a special commission has, in fact, been
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