CORRESPONDENTS' VIVID NARRATIVES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2279, 13 October 1914, Page 5

CORRESPONDENTS' VIVID NARRATIVES

CITY'S APPALLING PLIGHT ROADS CROWDED WITH TERROR-STRICKEN .REFUGEES : -r— ■ ' / ' (Rec. October .12,10.15 p.m.) • London, October 12. The, British correspondents at Antwerp who have .reached Flushing, and Amsterdam narrate that Antwerp was on fire in eight places on Wednesday night, and it waß impossible to put out..the'fires, as the Germans had destroyed the water/supply on Tuesday near Fort Waelhem and sheljfire'prevented ■all efforts to Tepair,the waterworks.. ', .. • ■ . . Tile Gorman guns were so cleverly concealed that the Belgians were unable to locate them, and their artillery fire =was quite ineffective. While the Germans were advancing'big guns to the south-east of Antwerp, another German cprps who were not. suspected in force attacked the line of the Scheldt from Grimberglieri to Wetteren with the object of attacking Antwerp from the west. Thirty thousand 'were engaged in this movement. They forced thepassage ofthe Scheldt near Schoonaerde by means of pontoon bridges. The Belgians had been in the trenches for four days, and the men were worn out and incapable of withstanding the attaoks of large bodies of men, but they'pluckily held their ground for some time. Finally the Germans advanced on Lokeren. SCENE OP APPALLING' UttANDKUE. Meanwhile a panorama of the. city from ,tbe tower of the Cathedral resembled Core's "Vision of Hell." The southern portion of the city was a desolate ruin, whole streets were ablaze, and thick black smoke from blazing oil tanks accompanied by occasional great tongues of fire made the scene one of appalling grandeur. Four miles from the oity was a line of the enemy's guns. Throughout Wednesday and Thursday morning the civilians in Antwerp endeavoured to escape over the pontoon bridge leading to St. Nicholas, hoping to reach Ghent. The greater part of the second line of forts fell on midday of Thursday. i The authorities then, claimed the pontoon bridge for military' purposes and ! used it to transport the garrison until all were south of the Scheldt, when the bridge was blown up. The last of the Belgians left early on Friday and maintained a heavy gun-fire to the last moment in order to gain time for an orderlyretreat; then they blew up the remaining forts and witndrew. ■■■ w -■'"'-. '■ . THE GERMAN ENTRY., The Germans entered by the Malinea gate at noon. When they entered Antwerp they told the few citizens remaining that ir the war refugees did not return-within two days their homes would oe used for the troops and the furniture taken from them. . _. There was heavy fighting on Friday afternoon between the retreating garrison and the permans aoross the Scheldt, who wore advancing upon the western side of Antwerp. Two hundred German Uhlans cornered a Belgian patrol at Nazareth on Wednesday. After the fight twenty-one Belgians were missing; five were discovered wounded hidden in a ditch and sixteen dead-in the open, of whom ten had their heads smashed, in with the butt-ends o'f Germans' rifles. A PANIC AMONG THE POPULATION, A' panio commenced among the population during the bombardment on Wednesday night, and fifteen thousand failed to secure passages by the Ostend steamers, and there was a desperate struggle to get aboard the dozen tug-boats going to Dutch ports. Several persons fell into the river and some were drowned. It is estimated that 300,000 people fled. A correspondent seeking refuge from shells in a cellar in an Antwerp hotel encountered some Australians, including Miss Louise Mack, the representative of the London "Evening News," and Mr. Frank Fox, representative of the "Morning Post." There were extraordinary scenes at Flushing on the Dutch side of the estuary of the Scheldt. Tho refugees camped in the streets, in sheds, and at the barraoks. When a box of bread was oarried to tho field the refugees made, a wild rush, men and women fighting for a portion, and it was some time before they could be persuaded to await further supplies. PITIFUL SCENES ON THE EOAD. The majority of tho rofugces_ wont to Esschon and Rosendaal' where on the roads there was a ceaseless pilgrimage of women and children and aged men seoking a sanctuary in Holland. Here and there was a luxurious motorcar with a lady heavily wrapped in rich furs; other refugees were wheeling barrows with their few belongings, but 70 per cent, were destitute. A number of children were born on the roadsides, during the flight, and aged wdmen, terrorised and ! hunger-strickon, died on the pathways. The Dutch sent motor-cars to scour the country in search of tho aged, sick, and stragglers. In sonio cases small babies were soparated from their •mothers. There were hundreds of cases whero small children arrived in Holland without parents. Dutch families have already arranged to adopt them if their parents cannot be traced. In ono case a woman's husband was lulled by a Gorman shell during the flight, and' she lost two children in the turmoil, only tho baby remaining. While thousands wore traversing the road to Essclien a rumour got afloat that tho Germans wore coming. This caused a panic, and the stampede was only quelled when tho parish priest ascended tho church tower and ficannod tho countryside and assured the refugees the rumour was not truo.