Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-02-23

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dred and thirty thousand men under
arms when Germany invaded Belgium,
but one of King Albert's staff officers
who has been with the army since the
siege of Liege, asserts that the small
Belgian force today Is a far more eff
icient machine than that which met
the first German attack.
He said to the Associated Press cor
respondent:
When we reached the User, we
were a beaten and demoralized army,
almost to the point of absolute dis
organization. Fighting for weeks
without adequate support from our al
lies, and with most Of our men be-
lieving that we had been left to our
fate, the chances of ever again max
ing a fighting force Of our army SEEM
! ed remote. That we did so was due
to the highest and lowest factors in
our civilization, the inspiration and
activity Of our king and the fighting
spirit Of our ~peasantry.
The kings aristocratic regiment Of
guards Is a thing of the past. They
have been disbanded and their places
taken by two regiments made up Of
| Flemish peasants and commanded by
active young officers in Belgium.
when the critical situation along
the User was relied the local peas
antry seemed to remember the glory
Of their past when their people were
the terror Of the invading Spaniard,
and it needed only the actual leader
| ship of the king to weld them into the
| fighting force you see here today. The
/ king Is commander Of this army and
| during those nine terrible days in
the trenches while the Germans hurl-
| ed their hosts at US, and we waited in
vain for the expected support, the
king was not only in inspiration to
his officers and men as he fought be-
side them. but he proved himself a
capable military leader. Today the
army is an efficient fighting force, too
small of course, for we are unable to
| give our men leave from the trenches
such as the French and English now
enjoy, and this has caused some ma
tural complaint, but in spite Of this,
as you car see for yourself, the spirits
of the soldiers could not be better.
These men are all veterans now and
most Of them are young in years. The
| officers are picked for their work
without regard to their former rank
and many of the highest officers Of
the army have been relegated to posts
where they are doing useful work, but
where they cannot repeat any Of the
| plumbers which marked the first part
Of the war.
I'VE have no apologies to make for
our artillery. This service was the
really professional branch Of the army
into which officers went for pure love
of their profession, and from Lege
1 to the User they have proven them
selves worthy Of the cause for which
they are fighting. Some idea Of the
value placed on our artillery Is indi-
Gated by the fact that a Belgian cap
tain Of artillery was placed in COM
mand Of two hundred French guns
and directed their fire continuously
for SO hours in one Of the iercest ar
tillery duels Of the campaign.
"Only second to our artillery are
the regular cyclist corps and the VOL
untary motor corps. The cyclists
were we'll trained and the Uhlans will
long have cause to remember their
craftsmanship. The autombile driv-
ers volunteered from what might rave
been called the butterfly class Of So
ciety youths, but they have proven as
tough as the battered cars which they
drive. They have endured incredible
hardships and many Of them occupy
unmarked graves, the sole reward for
some desperate scouting venture.
The less said about our infantry
existing at the beginning Of the war,
the better, but the work Of the men out
full for any past shortcomings in this
branch Of the service. We only have
a few square miles Of our country left
and practically all of this is subjec.
to artillery fire, but the same spirit
which made the low countries famous
as battle grounds in the middle ages
seems to have revived a tenacity in
our army which will continue to hold
west Flanders until the advance on
Brussels begins"