Reporter Hannah Hinsdale wrote, “Spokane yesterday touched the hem of history, a fleeting contact that sent a thrill through every nerve.”

The occasion was the visit of the Royal Belgian Commission, which passed through Spokane on the way to the coast.

The youngest man in the group, a lieutenant, told Hinsdale that “only one-twentieth of Belgium is in Belgian hands now.”

“There are men in our platoon who have not heard one word from their wives and families since the beginning of the war,” he said.

When Hinsdale asked him if he sought revenge, he said, “No, madame, you should never give evil for evil. We do not want the women and children of Germany to suffer as our people have suffered.”

As for life in the trenches, “news is hard to get, but sometimes when we have it, we give it even to the Germans.”

“The time you entered the war, we wrote the news on a big piece of paper and held it up by two rifles and on it we said, ‘The United States has entered the war; it is a sad day for you.’ ”

Hinsdale described the attire of the visiting Belgians and noted, “Many wore decorations and all wore wrist watches. That seemed probably the most striking thing about their attire, but no man seeing them would ever again think wrist watches effeminate.”