The Daily News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1918. THE LIBERATION OF BELGIUM.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1918. THE LIBERATION OF BELGIUM.

The liberation of Belgium seems to lie now only a matter of weeks, perhaps days. The latest news of the offensive is distinctly encouraging. A few days ago the Allies took the important centre of Roulers, on which the Germans depended for the supplies of nearly their whole Belgian line. Shortly afterwards Thorout, further north-east, fell, and now we have news of a rapid advance to Thielt. This has made the occupation of the Belgian ports untenable. Ostend has been occupied by the Allies, and must follow suit soon. Indeed, if the offensive is continued with the same vigor Ghent must be ours before long, and the distance to Antwerp will not then be very considerable. It is not surprising that the enemy' is endeavoring to get his ships away to Holland to be interned. The whole position of the Germans in Belgium is daily becoming more precarious, and it is quite possible that we may be able to isolate some of the German forces. It would be but a fitting conclusion to the Germans' occupation of Belgium, whose only offence was that it defended its integrity against the barbarous hordes that sought to crush the free people of France. What a glorious time the present must be for the brave Belgian amy, under its heroic King. For over four years they, with their sturdy and indomitable allies—France and Britain—have been engaged in resisting the onslaughts of the enemy, and endeavoring to drive him back. Until this last few weeks little or no progress was made. Sir Douglas Haig conducted an offensive in autumn, but the fates were against him. The French on his right failed to join up, and the Germans were able to throw in strong reinforcements, while. the weather broke and transformed the lowlying ground into swamps, into which our brave fellows floundered and became easy targets for the machine guns of the enemy, safely esconced on the high ground. It was in this fighting that the New Zealand Division lost so heavily at Passchendaele, suffering six thousand casualties within a few days. The New Zealanders, indeed, have taken no small part in the liberation of Belgium. Four years ago the Gerwere striving hard to break the ser line, held by the remnant of the Belgian Army, with British and French help. The British held the Ypres salient, the fighting for which was amongst the most terrible of the war. The Kaiser brought his picked divisions, numbering a quarter of a million men. Time and again they attacked in close formation, but 'they were hurled back with a courage and tenacity that cannot be overestimated. The British were reduced to small proportions. On one occasion Sir Douglas Haig had himself to collect the cooks, the service men, any men at all capable of bearing arms, to block the hole made in the British line, and stem the tide. The British line held, and Europe was again saved. The Belgians, too,, in those days passed through a terrible ordeal. Worn-out by the awful knocks they had received when the Germans descended on Liege, they took up the line between the British and. the sea. i'iiey were tragically outgunned, and outnumbered. An English war '.'orrespondent lias written of that iime iii words that may well be recalled to-day:

"Then a little remnant, all that had escaped from Antwerp, was fighting with the fierceness of despair to save the last line of Belgian defence. To the rear, towards Dunkirk and Calais, were uncounted companies of wounded and invalids, masses of rags and dirt, a tragic spectacle. The towns were choked with wounded and refugees. There was a of everything. Invalids scarcely able to crawl were burying the dead to save iin epidemic. .Forty odd thousand worn-oiit soldiers were clinging on to twenty miles of canal banks and wrecked towns, holding back the advance of l;>0,!)Uf) triumphant Germans. Their very dress was mid-Victorian; their guns were out-ranged and out-classed; their munitions were scanty. French gunners and French cavalry flew to their aid, but even before the French came the force of the German attack had been broken. I was there, and speak of what"l know. J'.ii.K'land, absorbed in the fighting then going on at \pres, did not realise then— I doubt if she has realised yet—what Belgium did at the battle of the Yser. Had she failed, all the splendid bravery of ITench's men would have been wasted, for our position would have been turned."

Tn that battle the Belgian Army was reduced to 30,000 men, and half of its guns were lost. But, like the British " contemptibles," they formed the nucleus of the

bigger and greater army that is now advancing under King Albert to redeem their country from the tyrannical sway of the invaders. It has been a long and terrible wait, for the Belgians, lift ides suffering all the agonies of defending their line in water-logged country, knew their wives and children were under the cruel heel of the enemy, forced to work as slaves, half starved and atrociously treated, their own property looted or razed to the ground. One can imagine the feelings of our brave allies m the hoar of the liberation of their country, and the emancipation of their people, and can appreciate the spirit with which they are fighting. It is little wonder that they are taking Dixmude to Roulers in one stride, Roulers to Thorout in another, and now Thorout to Thielt, and we can confidently anticipate the regaining of Ghent before long, and then it will be Antwerp and Brussels—and exit the infamous Germans from a land they have despoiled and befouled during more than four long years of anguish and suffering on the part of the inhabitants. It would in one sense be a thousand pities if peace were made before the Huns were summarily ejected from Belgium by the avenging hosts, and made to pay in part for their awful crimes.