May 26, 1942

Inbel, London

Culled from a diary, the memoirs of Major A. A. Gordon, attaché to the House of His Majesty the King of the Belgians in the 1914-18 war, has just recently been published in London.

Covering the Antwerp siege and the subsequent British withdrawal, life at De Panne, the visit of the Belgian King and Queen to the Grand Fleet during the war and their triumphant return to Brussels, Major Gordon also relates several demonstrations of postwar Anglo-Belgian friendship, such as Admiral Beatty's visit to Cardinal Mercier, King Albert's and Queen Elisabeth's trip to England in July 1920 and the return visit by the British sovereigns in 1922.

Major Gordon gives the following opinion of Belgium after the last war:

"One could not but admire the manner in which the Belgians tackled the problem of getting their country into order once again - a formidable task when one considers the ruin much of it was in. They are a wonderfully industrious people and extraordinarily cheerful."