The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-08-15
BELGIUM BATTLES"
And What They Mean at the Present
Time.

And What They Mean at the Present
Time.
Reading the dispatches from Brussels
in recent days ii is impossible not to
suspect that the Belgian war Office In
soma mysterious fashion has laid hands
upon Lieutenant Wagner, the illustrious
hero OF Balkan war correspondence. Ac.
counts Of battles" on Belgian soil, muir
derous, decisive, and almost Immediately
repeated, suggest the Imagination Of the
correspondent who decorated all the
Turkish territory from Lule Burgas 10
Chatalja with battles more terrible than
Leipzig, river crossings more fatal than
that OF the Beresina.
Now the odd thing about the Belgian
battles" is that after victory yester.
day Belgian troops are invariably found
fighting to-day some miles in the rear
Of yesterdays field of victory. Thus, In
turn they have triumphed on Monday at
Tongres- st .Trond, Tuesday at Hasselt-
Landen, but Wednesday and Thursday
are back at Tirlemont, Diest and Eghe-
zee.
The unmistakable fact Is that the
Germans are slowly, methodioally but
steadily advancing through northern
Belgium between the French and the
Dutch frontier. So far as dispatches
yet disclose the advance is almost ex.
clusively cavalry, and it is sweeping be-
fore it screen of French and Belgian
cavalry which is retiring fighting upon
Brussels, Namur and Louvain, pre-
sumably to the position selected by
the allies at which to make the final |
stand in Belgium.
Presumably the German cavalry screen |
precedes an advance of the army OF the
Mouse in great force, unless it be true |
that the delay at Liege has resulted in
a change in German plans. But the re-
ports from Holland of the construction /
of railroad line round the forts at
Liege and of the passing of strong d.
visions of German troops near the from
tier point rather to an eventual often
siye through eastern Belgium toward 4
Brussels and thence 10 France. Pre-
,isely this way Marlborough came twice
from Liege in the wars of Louis XIV.
The first time he broke through French
ines stretched from the Dyle TO the
Meuse at Tirlemort, where there already
las been fighting. The second time he /
orokc through at Families, destroying
yilleroi's army on a field which In part
vas fought over Eghezee on Wednes-
lay. II
A great deal of nonsense has been
written in recent DAYS about battles" i
nd prospective battles in Belgium. In \
'oint of fact the English war office yes
erday declared that there was but one
mall detachment of German infantry
orth of the Mouse and west of Liege T
n Belgium. This could only mean that !
he main advance of the army of the s
Tense had no more than begun from i
.iege and that, since the Belgians re- a
iring before the German cavalry were p
estroying all roads, bridges and raif e
rays as they fell back, the advance e
'ould be slow when it did come. Hence p
great battle in Belgium, north OF the t
ieuse, if it is to come, can hardly be G
zpceted for at least a week unless the Fl
lilies should take the offensive. F
This is precisely what the situation t
/ Liege should necessitate. If the Liege Il
osition is likened to the neck of a bot n
e, figure justified by the fact that \
le roads and railways from Germany
, Belgium all pass by the city, then o
lie preliminary operation of the Ger et
ans was in fact an attempt to pull b
lie cork, which resulted not in extract fl
e it, but pushing it into the bottle. p,
he result was that while the contents OF
the bottle did trickle out, the process ia
as long. is
What the Germans had to do when SC
ege did not fall was precisely like the 81
SIX of the Bulgarians after Lule Bur ii
Is, when they held both ends of the
rent railway between Sofia and Cha q
liza, but Adrianople commanded con- OF
citing link. To supply and re-enforce d
cir troops operating south of Adrian in
lie they were compelled to unload til
cir trains at Mustaphs Pasha and ar
ansport everything in carts around Fl
-innople to Dimotika, where they to
uld again use the railway. be
The roads in Belgium are far better tr
an in Turkey, the German machin- pc
Y is vastly better, but even with auto We
,hile trucks and all the resources of tn
,dern war department the task is an
ave one, seriously complicated by the
cessity to bring up siege guns and am ms
milton for the reduction of Liege along thi
; same lines. to
Crave delay, then, has followed the sci
resistance of Liege. But it siv
J not prevented the Germans from fe