the German authorities would keep the letter in the building, I couched
it in as pointed and telling terms as possible, having in mind the
eyes of the Germans, quite as much as the Ambassador.


Brand Whitlock,
United States Ambassador,
Brussels.

DEAR SIR:

As a native American citizen, born in Ohio, and now imprisoned by
the German authorities, I claim your intervention in my behalf. I am
thirty years of age, resident of East Boston, Massachusetts, for six
years. I am a graduate of Marietta College, Hartford Seminary, and
studied in Cambridge University in England, and Marburg
University in Germany.

Saturday Mr. Van Hee, the American consul at Ghent, brought me
here by automobile with Mr. Fletcher. Obliged to take back in his
car three ladies for whom he obtained permission from the
German Government, I was necessarily left behind; Mr. Van Hee
promising to return for me when diplomatic business brought him
to Brussels in a few days. Meantime I took a room at the Hotel
Metropole. From it I was taken by the German authorities this
morning. I do not know exactly what the charge against me is. I am
accused of offering money for information relative to the
movement of the German troops. I think that the man who worked
up the case against me is a Dutchman with whom I spoke upon a
car. He volunteered the information that he had been everywhere