DESPERATE FIGHTING IN BELGIUM.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 717, 31 October 1914, Page 5

DESPERATE FIGHTING IN BELGIUM.

appalling slaughter. GERMANS ADMIT HEAVY LOSS. Paris, Thursday. A bloody struggle continues along the Niouport-Ostend line. A number of Belgian wounded reach.ed thfi base hospital on Monday and Tuesday. Ths Belgians still say gleefully that | in a few weeks' time they will again ! have an army of a hundred thousand, referring to the training of recruits. Garipans on ihe Yser carry so-called tabletops, roughly constructed wooden devices, which they throw across narrow rivulets and canals as brides. They are also used as shelters when charging. The rushes usually end in appalling slaughter. * Advices from Amsterdam state that tha Germans admit that they never lost so many men as on the Yser. Of one group of 150 only two returned. A correspondent describing fighting at the Yser says numbers of Germans threw down their arms and pleaded for mercy, but the fighting was too desperate for that. This was the moment when tha tired Belgian infantry gave way and left the trenches, but the core of the trenches stood and saved the situation.

GERMANY Gtf OWING -UNEASY. ■ SHORTAGE OF SUPPLIES. London, Thursday. The Chronicle states that information via Holland shows increasing public uneasiness in Germany. There is a widely prevalent suspicion, particularly in commercial circles, that the truth of the military situation is withheld. An extract from a captured copy of orders belonging to tha Garman 14th Reserve Corps, dated October 7th,suggests a deterioration of general discipline. In one corps there was also a shortage of supplies. The orders notified the troops that they could no longer count on regular supplies, but must utilise the resources of the country as much as possible. The regulations for the use o* rations must be strictly observed.

GERMAN WAR MATERIALS. DESCRIBED AS HERRINGS. London, Thursday. An Englishman at Copenhagen writes that American cargoes are systematically discharged in Norwary, reloaded in other neutral ships, and sent to Stettin. Hundreds . of tons of toa from Liverpool, ostensibly for Denmark, are sent from Copenhagen to Norway, and,thence-to StettinCopper, siickel, and benzine are similarly forwarded in barrels, the bills of lading describing them as herrings.