BELGIUM FREE AT LAST.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1936, 6 February 1919, Page 1

BELGIUM FREE AT LAST.

GERMANS BEYOND FRONTIER. ■O , . .. WELCOME TO BRITISH ARMY. Belgium at last is free, wrote Mr H. Perry Robinson on November 2Cth. The great majority of the German troops have already crossed the frontier and the last are expected to go to-morrow. There can be no question as to the joy of the people at deliverance, or the enthusiasm with which the British troops have been received. At some places, notably at Binche, instead of (he usual French and Flemish placards, the charming idea was hit upon of making them all English, and one reads everywhere on walls and windows great placards with the word “Welcome,” and English greetings such as “We congratulate the heroes of Bapaume and Peronne,” or “Honour and (hanks to the brave English, our liberators.” Bunting is everywhere, and in the villages and towns one passes under whole arcades of triumphal arches of evergreens am! paper (lowers with legends laudatory of the British troops, in Huy. when our troops entered the night before last, the people were able to light some thousands of candles in Chinese lanterns to illuminate llm streets, and candles, one ha's supposed, were not among the things that were plentiful. The hardships

German rule here were evidently much less than elsewhere, but they were bad enough for the people to feel that they have awakened from a four-year-old nightmare of slav-

Along the roads everywhere one sees great quantities of abandoned German vehicles of all soils, esrwcialiy heavy lorries; but from all (he lau'-ablo parts have been taken awa;>, and the vehicles rendered useless for immediate service. Tin's may as well be remembered in connection with the German complaints that (he demands of the armistice on transport threaten the food supplies of the people. Great quantities of transport have been wantonly rendered useless.

RETURNING PRISONERS. There still goes on the endless Jlow of civilians, with their bundles, on all roads, but the saddest sight is the returning prisoners. The stream that trickles endlessly along the roads consists almost entirely of French prisoners, dressed mostly still in their faded blue, though now and again one sees an individual in the black German prison garb. All the French prisoners to whom 1 have spoken have volunteered the information that (he English were treated worse than they when they have been together, just as every civilian in the towns retells with complimentary glee how deeply the Germans hated and feared the English. The appearance of the French prisoners generally supports the statement that on the whole they are in vastly belter condition than those pilnble pien who dragged themselves along the roads by Tournai or Hocked into Brussels. The French prisoners have been worked hard on scant food. Their usual work consisted of unloading shells at railheads,'and so forth. All also tell tales of rough treatment by guards, and of being beaten with ritle-huls; hut they tell the tales wilhout much rancour, though with great contempt. At the last the prisoners of all nationalities —and there are a few Italians and Russians, as well as English, mixed with the French —were turned loose to find their way home in I lie same way, and only (he great kindness'of

the population along the roads has prevented mi imaginable horrors. GERMANS UNDER WHITE FLAG. Of all the people 1 have seen, however, I am not; sure that the most unhappy were not a party of Germans, consisting of one officer and a dozen troopers, riding through the streets of Namur under a white Hag on an official errand. Every man sat his horse rigidly, and was visibly Avhitc with fear. It was needless fear, for there has been no dirtier falsehood of the German High Command than that of a few days ago, in which they tried to fix recent excesses committed by their own men on the civilian population, who were said to have turned on the “bourgeois and soldiery.” It is vilely and contemptibly untrue. I have been in' newly-liberated towns enough to be able to speak with confidence.

In Namur ami other places I hoard the same talcs of revolution, anil how the officers all submitted to have their badges of rank cut oft' without resistance. Hardly an officer anywhere seems to have played the man, and absurd tales are (old of distinguished personages hiding I'rojn soldiers. At .Brussels they (old me how officers of high rank all got up when a representative of tin' Soldiers and Workmen's Council entered (he room, and stood to attention throughout. Tint Soviets got to work early here, for in Huy there was a man avlio before (he war lived in the town as a practising dentist, representing himself to he a Fleming. The day the Germans entered lie turned out in German uniform. When (hey left last Sunday he reappeared as a Flemish dentist, but, information being lodged, he is now, in British hands, with his papers, which include a discharge from the army, signed by the president of the Soldiers’ and Workmen’s Council, (ialed November 14th. In all the towns and villages certain numbers of German soldiers have stayed behind and given themselves up. When L was walking in the streets of Namur with another correspondent we passed two men, whose motley clothing suggested that they might be Fnglish prisoners. On my companion questioning them, they proved to be two Germans just emerged from hiding, and quite willing to he taken charge of.