The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-08-14

and an army occupying the gap would
have one flank solidly established on the
Meuse at the fortress of Namur and the
other on the Dyle. Scheldt and just north
of Louvain.
II then requires no real stretch OF
imagination to believe that as long ago
as last Thursday the allies began to
fortlfy themselves solidly on the front
between the Mouse and the Dyle on a
line little longer than the famous
trenches of Lees army about Richmond,
and of about the same extent as the
equally celebrated Chatalja lines OF the
recent Balkan war.
The exact location of the lines, how
ever must be a matter of pure eonjec-
ture, but again the geography aids.
East and north of Louvain, where the
Demer river makes it's great bend COM
ing north from the Hesbaye plain and
turns to the west, is the fortress of Diest
commanding the crossing of the river
and a whole network of railways con-
Meeting Brussels and Antwerp with
Maa,tricht in Holland and with north
ern Germany. Between Louvain and
Diest. the Demer flows almost due east
and west and would constitute a serious
obstacle to any German force attempt
ing to outfank an army which had one
wing established at Diest. Thirty-ive
miles south of Diest and on the Mouse is
the fortress of Huy. presumably still
held by the Franco Belgian forces.
Here, then, in the quadrilateral, with
Louvain, Namur, Diest, Huy at its four
corners. with the Dyle Demer rivers at
the northern side, the Meuse on the
southern, is the place where. it is almost
llnmistakable. a general charged with
defending the Belgian capital from inva-
sion and closing this road to northern
France would select to stand. Moreover,
in TINS position, the allies have had at
least a week to intreneh.
Now observe what has happened IN
the recent skirmishing. Considerable
! conflicts have taken place at Hasselt,
st. Troud Landen, Tirlemont and Han
nut, and still later at Diest and Eghe-
zee. Now these places are all squareiy
on the front Of the line between Diest
and Namur, and all dispatches agree
that Belgian and French forces were
present in real strength and that the po-
sitions threatened were OF serious impor-
lance to the allied forces in Belgium.
Unnistaksbly, then, the advance OF the
allied army can be placed between Diest
and Namur, behind the Geete river.
which flows north and south across the
front Of the allies position from Tirle-
mont to Diest.
Consider. then. what the effect viii be
when Liece falls OF the Germany army
of the Mouse has come up around il and
debouched on the Belgian plain. The
original intention was 70 pass through
Belgium either BY Namur and the Meuse
valley or across by Brussels and reach
northern France either via Maubeuge or
Lille. But now il must first defeat the
allied army barring its advance on a
line from Antwerp 10 Namur and on =
battle front stretching from the Dyle
to the Meuse.
On this line the allies viii have not
less than $4,000 men. six French army
CORPS az the least. 250,ouo strong; 5000
Beieians. that i substantially the Bel
eian field army. and not less than 200
British. II the Germans continue 70
llncer round Lisge there y the chance
that the whole British field army q