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242 WITH THE GERMAN ARIMIES IN THE WEST
delirium he described confusedly the fierce struggle at the
Nethe, where he was wounded. Later we stood beside the
bed of a little Belgian boy of twelve, who had happened to
get too close to the firing lines and whose left arm had been cut
off by a shell. Yet he was in good spirits and was looking at
a book with coloured plates ; he smiled pleasantly when the
German doctor patted him on the head. They had succeeded
in tracing his mother and she was to visit him daily for a little
while.
The corridors were lined -with solid-looking iron-hooped
wooden cases inscribed : Nicht ’ stiirzen (Not to be upset)
.
They contained photographic apparatus and plates. There
were separate rooms for X-ray photography and some photos
shown to us clearly revealed where the projectile had lodged
and what damage it had done on its passage. As a rule
wounds from rifle bullets are far less malignant than those
occasioned by shrapnel or shell splinters.
Soon we were on our way back again along the familiar
road to Brussels and we were just in time to get ready for the
Field-marshal’s supper-table. There were several interesting
guests present. Grand Admiral von Tirpitz, regally tall and
straight, was there. It is he who, after the Emperor, has
worked hardest for the creation of the German Navy. Lofty
forehead, frank and merry eyes, fair beard, resolute and
manly bearing, in fact a real Teuton. It was like a draught of
sparkling wine to speak to him. To such men nothing is
impossible, and with them there is no trace of anxiety about
the final issue of the war.
I also met here Herr K. F. von Siemens, head of the firm
of Siemens and Halske, also a very robust-looking man of the
Teutonic type and of a temperament in which humour and
gravity are agreeably blended. Talking about the German
losses, he estimated them at 250,000, of which, however, the
great majority were slightly wounded and had already returned
or would soon return to the front, and would then possess the
advantage over the new-comers that they had already been
under fire and had personal experience behind them. We dis-
covered that we possessed a common friend in the charming
Sir Walter Lawrence, one-time private secretary to Lord
Curzon when he was Viceroy of India. Probably he was now
lost to us as a friend, as this war has proved capable of sunder-
ing the closest bonds of friendship.
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