The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-25
Germans Are Leaving in Good
HumOr, Says Dispatch.
Troops Are Under Absolute
Control of Officers.
ALSACE-LORRAINE IS OCCUPIED
With Entrance Into Capital,
French Have Old Provinces.
Yanks Are Well Fed Before Be-
ing Sent Back.

Washington, Nov. 25.-German
=, troops are retiring in orderly fashion
and in good humor before the Amer
lean army of occupation in Luxem-
burg, semi official dispatches thru
the committee on public information
stated today. The American troops
are eager to push ahead and complete
the job of occupation
IN spite of German defeat, the Teu-
ton troops are apparently in good hu-
NOR" the dispatch stated. THE re-
tiring army is leaving little equipment
behind and the troops are singing their
war songs as they withdraw. Their
general impression is that while they
have been beaten they have not been
conquered and their attitude toward
the Americans is good humored.
According to all reports and in
spite of revolutionary talk the troops
are still in control of their officers.
There is little evidence of disorder.
Food apparently is plentiful among
German troops"
The Americans are not inclined to
make their entry into Germany op-
pressive, dispatches state. There is
little indication that the crossing of
the border will result IN trouble and
the impression is that the occupation
of German territory will be pacific.
In Luxembourg the Americans are
duchy is trying to facilitate the pas
sage of the occupying troops The pa
cific intentions of the Americans are
everywhere recognized. Every indf-
vidua1 American soldier entering the
city of Luxembourg is made a guest of
the inhabitants, many of whom have
relatives in the United States. The
general disposition is to make the en-
trance of the Americans a holiday, ac-
cording to the advices.
GOuraud Into Strasbourg.
Strassburg. Nov "a. - General
Gouraud entered this city today at the
head of the Fourth French army amid
the tremendous enthusiasm of 500, 900
people. Never did an army have such
a triumpha1 greeting.
'Such a spectacle pays all our suf-
ferings," said General Gouraud. who
issued a procla nation to the city be-
ginning with the wo- =. of the Mar
seillaise: The day of glory has
come.'
The ceremonial entry at Itch
Marshal Foch will take possession of
the city in the name of France and the
allies was fixed for 1870 o'clock Mon
day afternoon.
Are Wholly French.
Strassburg. Nov. "a (night) The
lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine
are again wholly French, thru the for
NAL occupation of their capital today
by French troops. The population reN
ceived the poilus with great enthu-
Siasm.
Evidence was obtained today that
the Germans are taking American
prisoners to the rear to fatten them
up on good food before liberating
them. as a result of an investigation
by German prisoner commission
which is afraid to permit the return of
the Yankees in their present ema ciated
condition. The Americans have been
working for months in mines fifteen
miles from the front, laboring eleven
hours a day, without sufficient food
or clothing, according to officers who
escaped rather than wait for their de-
layed liberation.
According to these officers, the con-
ditions in the enlisted mems camps and
their treatment were atrocious.
Eugene Scroggy, of Des Moines, an
aviator of the "gimpers squadron, ;"
who was wounded and taken prisoner,
/, was liberated from the Karlsruhe
prison camp for a day by the Germans
that he might act as their plenipoten-
tiary in arranging the possible sending
of prisoners directly across the Rhine
instead of thru Switzerland. He was
accompanied by a British colonel and
a French major.
These plans are now developing.
Scroggy returned to the boche guards,
waiting at a Rhine bridge, to keep his
parole.
SeIz to Switzerland.
London, Nov. 25.-The French now
hold the line of the Rhine from Selz
southwark to the Swiss border, a dis
tance of nearly 100 miles. This is a
little more than a quarter of the line
! to be occupied.
The greatest distance yet to be trav-
eled is about seventy-five miles from
the French lines in Rhenish Prussia
to MainZ.
According to the latest official re-
ports, the general line of the advance
extends as follows:
East of Arendonck. east of Moll, east
of Diezt Occupied by the Belgians)
Avenues Huy, Bomal. Grand Menil
Beho occupied by the British); Lux
emburg Prussian border to Region to
Diekirch Occupied by the French)
Luxemburg-Pru border to Lor-
raine frontier Occupied by Ameri-
cans); BuZendorf, Volkingen, Saar-
brucken. Saargemund. Bitsch. Reichs-
hofen. Selz. line of the Rhine to the
Swiss border Occupied by the
French).