BELGIUM'S ARMY TO-DAY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2728, 24 March 1916, Page 5

BELGIUM'S ARMY TO-DAY

A CREATION OF NINETEEN MONTHS OF WAR. 1 By Telegraph—Press' Association—Copyright ("Times" and Sydney "Sun" Services.)

(Reo. March 23, 5.5 p.m.)

London, March 22,

Lord Nortiliclifl'c writes to the "Times": "I had been with tho Belgian Army soon after ita loiits series of roarguard actions, when, war-weary, it needed sleep and equipment, though it never lost heart or discipline. To-day it is refitted and reorganised, and the results make a perfect little army. Belgium is'fortunate in having a man of vital forco in her Minister of War, M. De Broqueville. "The Belgian line, though the shortest hold on tho Allies' front, in proportion to population, is much tho longest. The army occupies si most difficult and extremely uncomfortable position. Iu no part of the war zone is the mud of Flanders blacker and deeper than in the Belgian trenches. General Wielomans granted me permission to take a qujefc unobtrusive seat on one of the batteries during an artillery duel.. On the way thither, we passed through Flemish villages, whose churches had been shelled to fragments. It is a'thousand pities that tho kinema operators have not been sent to prove to tho world that tho. Germans' warfare has been equally directed upon the civil population and the military. "X then saw the marvellous working of the seventy-fives, whose sharp bang was heard at many 'points. A quick older was/shouted in regard to the direction and elevation: then followed a slight pause in the little chamber, with its Rembrandt-like Flemish faces lit-.up for a moment as by the flames of, a smithv; then a. roar, which was gentle after the earthquake at Verdun, followed by a silence, until, kilometres away, wo heard our shell bursting. A good artillery battle reminds mio v<siy much of a quick lawn tennis volley. In this matter tho artillery reply of the Latins is certainly speedier than tho Huus. The improved Belgian Army is like tho British—a creation of. nearly nineteen months' war." •