But with the British navy generously allowing food to pass the blockade, the problem was far from solved.  Ships laden with supplies steaming to Rotterdam—­this was a matter of easy organization.  How get the bread to the hungry mouths when the Germans were using Belgian railroads for military purposes?  Germany was not inclined to allow a carload of wheat to keep a carload of soldiers from reaching the front, or to let food for Belgians keep the men in the trenches from getting theirs regularly.  Horse and cart transport would be cumbersome, and the Germans would not permit Belgian teamsters to move about with such freedom.  As likely as not they might be spies.

Anybody who can walk or ride may be a spy.  Therefore, the way to stop spying is not to let anyone walk or ride.  Besides, Germany had requisitioned most of the horses that could do more than draw an empty phaeton on a level.  But she had not drawn the water out of the canals; though the Belgians, always whispering jokes at the expense of the conquerors, said that the canals might have been emptied if their contents had been beer.  There were plenty of idle boats in Holland, whose canals connect with the web of canals in Belgium.  You had only to seal the cargoes against requisition, the seal to be broken only by a representative of the Relief Commission, and start them to their destination.

And how make sure that those who had money should pay for their bread, while all who had not should be reached?  The solution was simple compared to the distribution of relief after the San Francisco earthquake and fire, for example, in our own land, where a sparser population makes social organization comparatively loose.

The people to be relieved were in their homes.  Belgium is so old a country, her population so dense, she is so much like one big workshop, that the Government must keep a complete set of books.  Every Belgian is registered and docketed.  You know just how he makes his living and where he lives.  Upon marriage a Belgian gets a little book, giving his name and his wife’s, their ages, their occupations, and address.  As children are born their names are added.  A Belgian holds as fast to this book as a woman to a piece of jewellery that is an heirloom.

With few exceptions, Belgian local officials had not fled the country.  They realized that this was a time when they were particularly needed on the job to protect the people from German exactions and from their own rashness.  There were also any number of volunteers.  The thing was to get the food to them and let them organize local distribution.