A FORTRESS "VILLA"

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2350, 5 January 1915, Page 6

A FORTRESS "VILLA"

BUILT THREE YEARS AGO GERMANS IN BELGIUM Stories of Germans building gun enplacements on their properties are not now quite new, tut here is an instance tolrl bjj Georges Paquot in the "Daily Mail,"' showing unusual perfidy on the part of a supposedly friendly eccentric German in Belgium. Coxyde is a charming little watering place of about 1200 inhabitants situated on tho seashore between Nieuport and Dunkirk. Its resident population, is mainly made up of fisher folk. There are about three hundred villas on the front used as summer residences by visitors. One of the dunes surrounding the town, called the Hoogon Blikker, rises to a height of over 100 feet, and from its summit one can overlook a large portion of the Belgian coast and tho valley of tho Yser. Pretty little maisonnettes are nestled in tho dunes, which retain their rugged pieturesqueness. From them thp view s'retches across the illimitable green plain,'and several Flemish villages with tlieir church spires can be seen. Coxyde is a favourite seaside resort for Brussels families, and many Germans who spend their holidays in tho Belgian litEoral know the place as well as they do Qstend, Blankenberg, or Knocko. An Affection for Belgium; About three years ago a German, who told everybody that he liked Belgium, SJuS, .naxticuhtfly Cosida- wrchasad. *•

site on the seaside not far {com the summit of the Eoogen Blikkjar, He engaged a contractor to build a magnificent villa. l'be foundations iand walls were to lie very substantial. ! Tho flooring was of brick in a thick bed of cement, and .the walls were of stone a yard thick from cellar to rooii. The floors instead of being constructs of wood were two feet thick madoi of solid oement. The building alofijT cost £10,000,; although the superficial area of the villa was not great. Local gossip had it that the owner of the villa was an elderly eccentric, a bit mad-brained, and people laughed at his "fortress," which on each floor had one window overlooking the sea, ' another overlooking Dunkirk, twelve miles away, a third overlooking Nieuport, five miles away, and a fourth overlooking Fumes, three miles away.

People laughed, too, at tho lift which was installed, capable of 1 raising ten tons from the cellar, to the loifl. There was no garden, to the villa, 'but it waß beautifully furnished, with all the woodwork in mahogany. The Gorman, who was occasionally seen in residence, had a concierge of military appearance, who spent money freely. Like a g;ood houseowner, careful of the approaches to his property, the German had a macadamised road constructed from the villa through .the dunes to the main road, half a mile distant. , Uses of a Dynamo. About three weeks ago the authorities suddenly awoke to the uses .to which this villa could be-put. It had been deserted by the German and, his wife and servant, and it was found that, the boiler and dynamo serving the enormous lift were quite as applicable to a wireless station or searchlight installation. . Then people began to understand how it was that when once the framework of the building had besn constructed only the ; workmen of German firms in Brussels were employed to make the internal' fittings I . When the . Belgian engineer corps blew the villa up they found that it had contained gun 1 emplacements which made it - a dangerous fortress. Tho; case of the Coxyde villa is not unique in Belgium. At Schoonaerde,, near Termunde, the Belgian artillery destroyed a German-owned chemical factory, which had been strongly built with' a, .view to its being held as a fortified post, and, in fact, was occupied by the German troops who withstood a siege for some time. In several other parts of Belgium concrete foundations for mounting heavy guns'' have been found in the parks surrounding large properties that had b'een.purchased' by Germans.