BELGIUM NOT CONQUERED.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 18 August 1917, Page 6

BELGIUM NOT CONQUERED.

AN INVIOLATE CORNER CONQUEST IN EAST AFRICA Explaining the part which the Belgian army is taking in the war, Lieut.- • General Leclercq, a member of the Belgian Mission to xlmerica, stated in Washington that the Belgian army is larger, better equipped, and more determined to-day than if was at .the bethe war. “The King withAaut a country,” is the expression the • -German papers use to designate our Sov- • ‘ eign, says General Leclercq. This is not quite accurate. There remains a part'of Belgium still inviolated, and

the Germans shall never conquer this small corner of our country. Besides '-habilitating her army after terrible losses, the general declared, his country has set up muntion factories abroad, one at Havre, with 15,000 workmen, and two at Richmond and Letchworth, in England, with 35,000 workmen, while the Royal Belgian Lloyd, with a capital of £10,000,000, assures transportation at sea. Special schools train the maimed and the crippled for whatever work their disabilities make possible. The Belgian army occupied a front of 22 miles, with eight divisions, including two of cavalry. Th e land is low and flat, requiring millions of sandbags for defence. The Germans had organised a formidwar machine, whose wheels were adjusted witih absolhte precision, ho added. The resistance of Belgium at Liege was the little grain of sand which threw r the whole machinery out of gear at the very commencement, as it permitted the French to gain very precious time. In Africa, too, we have met the Germans. Our colonial army, 18,000 coloured troops before the war, was immediately increased to 23,000, and dedicated itself to inflicting a merited punishment for the unjust invasion of the mother country. Belgium has gained a territory of incalculable value, with a population of eight million and an area twice as large as Belgium herself, and offering the most favourable commercial resources.