Evening journal., 1915-02-08
BY wILLIAM PHILIP sIMMs.

thlted Press stan correspondent
AT GRAND HEADQUARTERS !
KING OF BELGIUM INSIDE BEL !
GIAN FRONTIER, Via Paris. Feb. s. |
-Doggedly determined never 10 yield |
the remainder of his little kingdom
to the Germans. King Albert is here
on the fighting line directing the
movements Of the reorganized Bel
gian forces along the User. Omcers
in close touch with the King told me
today he would never abandon Bel
eian soil if the Germans made anoth-
er advance.
HE would enter the trenches in
side the frontier of his Kingdom and
meet his end with gun at his
shoulder" one officer told me.
And he added:
The whole Belgian army is satur-
ated with the same spirit"
This is not the same army that fell
| back, crushed under the weight OF
the Kaiser's great human juggernaut
The Belgians have been completely
| reorganized. They have been newly
equipped from cap TO boots They
have had rest-and they needed il
after fighting like heroes for twenty
four hours a day in an effort to stem
the German tide that flowed through
Liege and Antwerp. Today they oc-
cupy three times as much of the
/ allied battle line as they have oc-
cupicd since the fall Of Antwerp.
] was permitted to remain all night
in the trenches. Belgian officers es-
corted me on a tour OF the advance
posts. Our trip took us at times TO
within 100 yards of the German lines.
The country along the User is a
, tragic waste. The most dismal swamp
would be a Garden of Eden by com
parison. Water stretches across the
| fields from Dunkirk to Ostend: from
the seacoast south to Ypres. criss-
crossed by roads built up by both
armies and dotted by tiny islands. oc-
cupied ruins Of deserted farmhouses,
standing out like silent sentries i'm
the food.
The hottest fighting is progressing
for these roads and islands. The
slaughter is frightful. Numberless
/ decomposcd bodies float about the
marshes, rotting in mud and water
! The stencil is too horrible TO de-
scribe
The battles hereabout are the queer
est in history. During the day there
are bitter artillery duels. From road
to road, from island to island guns
belch forth shells across the waste of
water.
The cannonading slows up as night
settles over the flooded areas. Then
small bodies of from so to $50 sol
diers form surprise storming parties.
They cross the waters to the attack
on RATS and scows drawn by men in
hip-boots, who on the previous night
had explored the food 10 find the
most wadeable routes. The Germans
keep the night glowing with illum-
mating bombs, which hang in the
air. to prevent surprises of this sort.
Their CHASTITY light converts the
whole water battle field into a de-
yastated Venice.
This hell-hole is world Of its
own. II is apart from the other
worlds along the battle line where
men are fighting over firm ground.
And the Belgian soldiers have made a
dream world of it,
They pretend each island in the
food is strange country. Their
forces they say. arc eXpcditiOnary
forces sent to subjugate the strange
lands. II Is a game for boys. Tut The
soldiers enjoy il with all the cnthu-
siasm Of boyhood. though sometimes
whole parties that set forth on a mis-
sion of conquest to these strange
lands" never return.
The outpHsts arc new luxury for
the BelgRns. They were unable to
establish them prior TO the German
check because the Kaiser's armies had
poured in upon them too rapidly. The
reserve forces are another luxury,
The outposts by preventing surprises
and the reserves by taking reliei
duty insure regular periods of reposr
for all These things arc WORKING
wonders toward keeping the soldiers
in fine condition physically and pre-
! serving their excellent morale. A
! STAFF officer told me that tho Belgian
. army was ncv"~ so effective, so dc
, tcrmined as now.
I King Albert's tonacity is the thin
r that has gripped the men, he said
"He has refused to permit his owl
spirit TO be broken. He has imbue
4 his men with fervor not unlike tina
o of the followers Of Joan OF Are"