The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-23
WAR ECHOES

Cleveland Plain Dealer: When the
 Germans took Antwerp and swept
 westward in their drive on Calais and
 Dunkirk, their extreme right was final ly halted on the bank of the little canalized River Yser. Here the Brit ish who had fought valiantly in the battles of the Marne and the Aisne
 and who had been quickly transferred from the batt1egrounds in the vicinity of Paris, came to the support of the retreating Belgians who had been driven out of Antwerp. And ncre the allied line has held firmly for more than four months. despite the fact that the German commanders are more ds- sirous of breaking through here than at any other point.
 Behind the allied lines lies a tiny strip of Belgian territory, only a few square miles in area Only one town of any considerable size, Furnes, is located in this unconquered fragment of King A1bert's domain Furnes has never been taken by the Germans. has never even suffered the horror of a ombardment such as has devastated Ypres has never been the scene of fighting. The land behind the Yser is but silver of Belgium. but if Bel gium and her allies finally are vic torious in the war the future genera tions of Belgians may derive some mel ancholy satisfaction from the fact that their country was never completely conquered.
 In the alignment of the allied forces for the great siege battle which has lasted all winter it was fitting that the position along the Yser should bs assigned to the Belgian army. Fight ing here. King Alberts soldiers are still defending an insignificant ribbon of fatherland; elsewhere they would be without the personal incentive of striving to protect their native soil.
 In the general offensive movement which has been inaugurated by the western allies during the past two weeks the Belgians have taken an honorable part While the French were making slow but certain gains in Champagne, and while the British were winning their bloody battle at Neuve Chapelle, the Belgians in the Yser dis" trict were also pushing forward a few yards at time and were retaining whatever ground they took. This aft CT a long winter of defensive fighting, in which the men of King Albert ob- stinately held their own.
 Belgium is now a very unimportant participant in the war but the lit- tie she has to do she is doing well Those who admire the Belgian people, and these admirers may well be num- bered among the German sympathizers who respect a brave fight against great odds, have had no cause to be ashamed of the little army which King Albert commands in person in the inundated fields and sandy wastes of the Flemish coast.
 Baltimore Sun: If at the end of the next eight months of war there is no decided change in the relative position of the combatants, we think it $ not unsafe to predict that we shall see something like peace ahead as q con sequence of general exhaustion and of the realization on all sides of the fu- tility of continuing the contest. In that case the 18th of next December might witness an armistice, if not the con- clusion of the war, and the assem- ling of an international conference to arrange the terms of settlement Let us hope, at all events, that the Christi mas of 1915 may be known to his tory as the great peace Christmas. And if all peacelovers work as hard to that end as the combatants fight, we may produce psychological state of mind among the belligerents themselves that will help to promote the result.