Page:Emile Vandervelde - Three Aspects of the Russian Revolution - tr. Jean Elmslie Henderson Findlay (1918).djvu/210

 astonish us, was the great sympathy shown for the Belgians. We had thought, truth to tell, that for the greater part of Russia our little country was only a place on the map, but they soon convinced us of the contrary.

Many of them had completed their studies at Liége and other Belgian Universities. They knew our "Houses of the People." They had been inspired by our co-operative system to follow our example. They had translated our Socialist literature, and especially did they remember what Belgium had done at the beginning of the war, and they were infinitely grateful to the Belgians for opposing the German armies when they themselves were attacked at the other side of Europe.

We had scarcely passed the frontier before we were given a striking proof of their feeling towards us.

It was in the dining-car of the train between Stockholm and Petrograd. Our neighbours at table were two army doctors returning from Germany. They took us for Frenchmen, and spoke in a friendly way of France. In the midst of our con-