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In other words, the employers had no distrust of the workmen. The workmen just took them home and hid them. They don't ordinarily take the diamonds home, because they go to a central place, you see, to cut the diamonds. It's very valuable work. But they took them home and hid them in their houses, in their flour bins, everywhere. You know, they just had them hidden. And after the War, they brought them out again. The result was that they were back in production very quickly, and terrifically busy and buzzing around.
That day in Antwerp was one of the most fascinating that I had ever had. We went west to Ghent and Bruges and to Ostend. At Ghent, I was received by the Mayor and the town council and so forth. The Mayor of Ghent was an old man but he had two youngish sons. I think I told you about how they opened up--?
Well, at any rate, I of course was concerned about their industries, and I was taken to see in Ghent their textile industry, which was operating--not, I suppose, full, but it was operating. There was a great enthusiasm for the new labor code, which the government-in-hiding officials had drafted, which as I told you earlier, was being put into shape, was then being put through the Parliament piecemeal. When I say piecemeal, I mean section by section.
There was, even then, great disturbance about the King, because the King had not gone into exile. The King had stayed and, according to my informants, who were largely Walloons--M. Troclet
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