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We went in to see him, you see, in the Burgomaster's office-- sometimes you make a long call on the Burgomaster, sometimes you make a short one. The Burgomaster usually receives you with some ceremony, and makes a little speech. I rose and made a speech in return. Then, you know, they passed the champagne, and that was that. Then you would withdraw, ordinarily.

But some picture in the room interested me, and I asked him about it, and he started to explain what this was. This was the fleet doing something or other. Then I asked him other things about how these divisions came about, and he started off into a description of Belgian history which was really fascinating, and of the whole growth of the Socialist movement in Belgium, and how it had always been headed by idealists. The Belgium people had always accepted it, even though they remained Catholic.

“Well,” I said to him, “are you Catholic?”

“No,” he said, “I am not. I was born Catholic, but I am not Catholic. I'm a Socialist, so I don't practice, I have nothing.”

Then he started to tell me about how he detested the Communists, and why he did. He said, “You know, I was the secretary --I was the assistant secretary of the Second Internationale “--(wasn't it in Stuttgart?) -” in Germany, which means of the Socialist movement, “and Stalin was a clerk in the office. And somebody else was something else. I was a young man.