BEHIND THE GERMAN LINES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 255, 7 April 1915, Page 6

BEHIND THE GERMAN LINES.

ADVENTURES IN BELGIUM.

A CORRESPONDENT'S IM'PRKSSION

It is very difficult to obtain from 11:/ German Kommaiulatur in Belgium permission to travel anywhere past the line •if Ghent, Brussels and Cliarlcroi (says a correspondent of the London Evening Mews, writing from Belgium). The permits are not readily granted even to Hermans and Belgians, and a foreigner, whatever his nationality, finds it almost impossible to secure one. The parties of American, Italian and German journalists taken to visit the trenches and the supposed firing line were real!)' shown only a few places previously arranged. In no cases were they allowed to see the tilings they really wanted to see, nor were they permitted to talk to the population or to the soldiers. If I wished to get near the front, I rca'ised that I must find a very convincing pretext. I happened to have some friends, proprietors of a large motor works in Tournai, so I managed to obtain a pass for this town, alleging some business transactions as my excuse.

Erom Brussels the train only took rie as far as Enghien, from which little town I had to proceed by road in an impossible vehicle pulled by an old horse, so old and worn out that it had escaped Germim requisition. It must have been a very old horse to escape that.

Curiously enough, the part of Belgium I crossed while approaching the German front seehied to have suffered very little. No . ruins and no burned houses. Indeed, but for the sentries -posted on the road every quarter of a mile, one could have thought the country was at peace.

But a few miles from Tournai was reached the country which began to assume a warlike appearance.

PREPARED FOR RETREAT,

Numerous trenches, which evidently had never been used, and which woe filled with ice-covered water, lay ready for an eventful retreat. From this point up to the front there were long runs of trenches at frequent intervals. Before reaching Tournai I passed a military aerodrome, which had been arranged in a large treeless piece of ground near Basecles. Two large Zeppelin shelters and some temporary hangars, capable of holding about 10 aeroplanes, had been erected. One of the Zeppelins was just coming back from the direction of Brussels when we 'passed: two aeroplanes had been taken out in the open air, and a number of soldiers were walking round them.

Though Tournai is not very near the front, the town is completely occupied by German troops and is treated as a town in the battle zone." This is because the to.vu occupies a very important position 011 the River Scheldt, and because Lille, about 20 kilometres westward. is too close to the firing line to permit of its being used as a base.

! All the bridges on the river are min- | ed, most of houses have, been converted into temporary hospitals for slightly wounded soldiers, and the town Js filled with officers and men just back from the trenches.

THE BATTLE-STAINED GERMANS. Never before had T seen German soldiers newly returned from the field of battle. Nothing remained of the welldressed, well-fed, and stiff troops generally seen in Germany. Their uniforms .were torn and dirty; their faces unshaven. thin, and often unhealthy. They did not sing, they were not noisy. 1 saw them in cafes ana restaurants writing long letters home, with a large glass >of beer in front of them. Often in the same establishment were groups of bright yming men in comparatively fresh uniforms, soldiers who were cheering and singing because next day they were going to the front. They were men of the 'OS and '9B classes who had just come from Germany. The veterans were , looking at them, and I heard one say, to another: "They will cool down soon; they don't know ve: what the trenches are like." Tournai has seen going through its streets most of the German wounded on their way back to the Fatherlan.l, and most of the prisoners travelling to the concentration camps in Germany. Nobody could tell me, even approximately, the number of wounded that had gone through the town, but everybody agreed the number was very large, though the number of sick is still larger. Typhoid fever claims a large number of victims, both amongst the troops and. the civilian population.

•DEPOTS FOR WOUNDED. Special nonces warning everyone to drink no water unless it had been boiled were to he seen everywhere. Lately numerous cases of lockjaw (tetanus) have also made their appearance. It is said that soldiers get the dreadful ill'ness while working with barbed wir?. The station at Tournai as well as two largo hotels near it, have been ( inverted into depots for the wounded mho are to be sent to Germany. Apparently, the German Government does not like wounded, or sick soldiers to come into touch with civilians or with soldiers going to the front. It is to avoid such contact that they are concentrated !n Tournai, and from there sent via Mons, Liege, Aix-la-Chapelle straight to Germany. No civilians are allowed into the station at Tournai, and the wounded always travel by special train. For the prisoners it is different. They are marched through the town preceded and followed by German troops. The population oilers them cigars, sweets, and tobacco, to the great rage of the German soldiers, who can never manage to make any friends. Very often tile same group of soldiers is made to march 'through the town many times to impress the population with the large number of prisoners. -' THE RECURRING HIGHLANDER,

A lady who has been in Tournai since the beginning of the war told nie that she once noticed amongst a group of British soldiers a very tall," thin, and red-haired Highlander, and she remarked to a lady friend with her: "Isn't that man the living caricature of the Englishman as we alwavs see him on the stage?" l?ut two or three days later she saw a

fellow exactly like the first amongst | another group of prisoners; she came to the conclusion that the giraffe-like figures and ginger hair were rather common in the British Army.

The next clay brought another group of British prisoners and another apparition of a very tall, red-haired Tommy. >'he looked at him interrogatively, at which he bowed and shouted out in a

■lly voice: "Here 1 am again, madam." ''he lady bid him godS-by, but the tommy laughed anil answered, "Xo, ail rcvoir. I shall call again soon, I am .sure." « f Wanted to get as near the firing line a; possible, and I asked 'permission to go to Lille. This was denied me, and as, considering the enormous number of sentries on the road, it would hate been foolish to try and go there without it, I decided to go instead to Courtrai, a little town north of Tournai, which is only about twelve kilos (about eight miles) from the firing line. Tournai, which is not at all damaged in the centre of the town, has a number of houses de-itro.ved in il» northern part. The wonderful cathedral, a mixture of 2!) different styles, lint, in spite of this, quite harmonious and beautiful, has received a shell which luckily has not done much damage.

LOADKD P.ED CROSS VAXS.

Forr large motor vans pas.-ed in front of me on the road to Courtrai, and my horse which in former years had probably been a good charger, reared and neighed loudly. Tliey were Red Cross vans loaded with wpur.ded. Four or five times a day they go to Tournai, carrying wounded, and <>on»e back carrying sanitary material to the northern section of the Herman front.

1 crossed the Kchelde by a temporary* bridge made witli curious concrete flat boats. The bridge was <nmnled by numerous soldiers, and with them was an Austrian officer, the only one T saw during the whole of my journey in Belgium.

T hail to got off my saddle and show my paper-;. While waiting for the officer to look at tliem my attention was attracted' to an extraordinary-looking boat drawn up near tlie river side. The boat was just like one of the ordinary flat, large river boats which in Belgium carry stones and coal on cangls and rivers, but for the exceptionally clean and smart appearance lent to it by a, verandah covered with glass, under which were numerous palm trees. The whole boat was painted white, and on the top of it waved the Red Cross flag. On deck were two white-clad nurses and one or two wounded with bandaged heads sat smoking and reading in basket chairs on the veerandah. I was told that the boat is one cf the Berlin Red Cross League, floating hospitals, ami that the nurses are ladies of society. These hospital boats arc specially intended for wounded or sick officers who are likely to recover soon if properly treated. The nearer I got to the front the more distinct was the noise of the guns.

A RETREAT TO THE LYS. Are there any inhabitants left in Courtrai? I did not see any during my visit there. The hotels and the public buildings were taken up hy the Germans; numerous platforms for guns were being constructed in the western part of the town. A number of temporary fortilicntion works had already been prepared here. The line of the Lys seems to have lieen carefully fortified down to Coui'triti, and one almost gets the impression that the Germans are seriously thinking of the possibility of a retreat on this river while a second and still better fortified line has been prepared twenty kilometres (about thirteen miles) behind on the Sehelde At the base of the old fortifications of the town, yvhere the famous Bataiile des Eperans d'o» was fought, the invaders have arranged a sort of artillery depot. iho special carriages carry the fiivo pieces from Essen to this spot, where they are put together, and than sent to their destination.

J liere are the enormous eicge' guns, as massive as elephants, and as complicated as a cathedral organ; the quickfiring guns, light and agile; tile short and squat mortars; and at a side a sort of cemetery of old artillery pieces; guns without carriages, smas'ieil wheels, distorted, and broken remains of old arms, blackened and made unrecognisable by tlio explosions of hostile projectiles. Ihe number of soldiers here seemed enormous. Day after day trains loaded (With new troops kept coming. These men are only in part gent tn the "rout: the other part leaving for an unknown destination. I had the impression that something was being prepared ,probaJbly a desperate attack on the north-west in the direction of Ypijes and Dixniude.

COURTKAI ON RATIONS.

Courtrai is quite close to the trenches; often- regiments which liave been for a week or ten days in the firing line come bade, and are replaced b\i fresh troops. Every now and again a bomb bursts on the town and causes some damage. It is almost impossible to get anything to cat anywhere, and the population is strictly rationed. To make sure that no light will give away the position of the town at night, gas and electric light have been cut off. At 0 o'clock everybody must be indoors. I don't know if civilians have ail left the town by order of the Governor; but it is certain that it seems only to be by soldiers. Some houses with doors wide open are completely abandoned, whilst others, tile best ones, are inhabited, fyy officers. A number have been burned.

In 110 hotel was there a room to ,l>e had, and I spent the night on a billiard table covered with a mattress. Every now and again the gung awakened me their thunder-like rumble, which at night sounded nearer and stronger. I could see the clouds in the distance reddened by the flames of the explosions.

In the morning I wont down to the cemetery of the town, ivhich, being at the extreme west, gave me opportunity to glance towards the forbidden ground, the real firing line. In the distance, with the helii of a good pair of fieldglasses, lent me by an officer, I conlil see something moving slowly with smoke above it. Behind the leafless trees of the road smoke announced the German artillery position. I told what I had seen to an officer, who happened to he a very nice fellow, and I asked him: "Is a modern field always so slow?" "Yes, almost always."

"And this goes on for weeks?" I said. "For months, sir." "And don't you think' it likely that you or the others will try a decided move one of these days?" "Wo hope so," answered the officer; "we have not begun to fight yet."