The inhabitants of Antwerp were as delightful as their city.  On all sides we were welcomed with a kindness and a consideration not always accorded to those who are so bold as to wish to help their fellow-men.  Everywhere we met with a courtesy and a generosity by which, in the tragedy of their country, we were deeply touched.  They all seemed genuinely delighted to see us, from the Queen herself to the children in the streets.  Our medical confreres treated us royally, and the mere thought of professional jealousy with such men is simply ludicrous.  They constantly visited our hospital, and they always showed the keenest interest in our work and in any novelties in treatment we were able to show them; and when we went to see them, we were shown all the best that they had, and we brought away many an ingenious idea which it was worth while going far to obtain.  Wherever we moved amongst the Belgians, we always found the same simplicity of purpose, the same generosity of impulse.  Everywhere we met the same gratitude for what England was doing for Belgium; no one ever referred to the sacrifices which Belgium has made for England.

The one thing which so impressed us in the character of the Belgians whom we met was its simplicity, and the men who had risen to high rank did not seem to have lost it in their climb to fame.  But it was just this, the most delightful of their characteristics, which must have made war for them supremely difficult.  For strict discipline and simplicity are almost incompatible.  None of us tower so far above our fellows that we can command instant obedience for our own sakes.  We have to cover ourselves with gold lace, to entrench ourselves in rank, and to provide ourselves with all sorts of artificial aids before we can rely on being obeyed.  These things are foreign to the Belgian mind, and as a result one noticed in their soldiers a certain lack of the stern discipline which war demands.  Individually they are brave men and magnificent fighters.  They only lacked the organization which has made the little British Army the envy of the world.  The fact is that they are in no sense a warlike nation, in spite of their turbulent history of the past, and, indeed, few things could be more incompatible than turbulence and modern warfare.  It demands on the part of the masses of combatants an obedience and a disregard of life which are repellent to human nature, and the Belgians are above all things human.  Germany is governed by soldiers, and France by officials.  Unlike the frogs in the fable, the Belgians are content to govern themselves.