Courtrai, 1940

George Franklin Thomson commutes from Greenwich, Conn, to the advertising office of Calkins & Holden in Manhattan. He is married, has a grown son, wears horn-rimmed spectacles for reading. Onetime editor of St. Nicholas magazine, he has literary talent and writes occasional verse.

Mr. Thomson's life has not always been so peaceful. During World War I he volunteered with the British, flew in the Royal Flying Corps. Shot down in Flanders, behind the German lines, he spent months in prison camps before the Armistice freed him. Deeply moved by the Nazi occupation of Belgium last fortnight, he sat down and wrote some reminiscent lines:

IN COURTRAI, 1918

Julia de Saegher, child of Courtrai in 1918, do you remember how blessed you made the Sundays of its prisoners within the white-washed walls of the gendarmerie, by your precious, timid visits and generous gifts of bread?

How fares it with thee, under the new protection of the Herrenvolk, with all their culture and compassion?

May God be with you and return to

you, upon the waters of His mercy, some

crumbs

of kindness, some ripples of hope.

He sent his poem to the New York Herald Tribune, which published it. Last week he got a telephone call. A woman's voice informed him that it was Julia de Saegher calling. She had read his poem; she was living in Stonington, Conn. Mr. Thomson asked her to come to his office.

Twenty-two years had passed since the 14-year-old Belgian girl and the American aviator had met, but they recognized each other instantly (see cut). She had married a wine importer, Michel Van den Bogaerde, and they had come to the U. S. Business got bad, and Michel had opened a small restaurant in Greenwich Village. To help family finances, Julia was working as a companion to Mrs. Frederick C. Horner, wife of the assistant to the chairman of General Motors. Her two sons were in school. The two old friends lunched, talked about Courtrai, 1918. So as not to spoil their reunion, they avoided the subject of Courtrai, 1940.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.