Cardinal Mercier's Own Story

I THINK I owe the public a word of explanation as to how this book has seen the light. During the war, and more frequently after the armistice, I was asked would I write a narrative of my war experiences. I had taken many notes of events as they had occurred, and my memory was full of incidents in which I was concerned. Much as I would have wished to write such a story, from some points of view, if only to vindicate my country against its detractors, the libels circulated by its enemies, yet I felt, more and more inevitably as the weeks rolled by, that I would never have time to write this book. I then thought of my correspondence with the German authorities right through the war. Here are my war experiences in their most tense and vivid reality; all the issues I fought with the occupying power, their methods and mine clearly defined, undeniably fixed in black and white. So I asked a friend of mine, Professor Mayence, of Louvain University, to take my notes and material, and to edit my correspondence with short explanatory remarks about the letters and the events they referred or led up to. I also gave him some personal reminiscences for this purpose, and with him revised the whole book. I could not let his work go to press without publicly thanking him for having helped me as he has done.