suburbs and along the canal have been destroyed and the trees outside of the city out down so that any German attacking force will be unable to take cover. Officers detailed by General Joffre from the French Staff Corps to aid the Belgions are now here and are meeting with the Belgian staff.
There is grave doubt whether the German plans consider any serious siege of Antwerp. The defences of the city are considered im-Pregnable. There are three lines of forts, the final and naturally the strangest having been completed in 1908. The entir proach from the land is carefully guarded, while British or French warships can be led directly up the Scheldt to aid in the defence. But the very fact that it would require a lengthy siege to take the city, if it could be taken, which all Belgian officials den: ment against it.
To detach an army of sufficient strength to make an impro: on Antwerp would rob the Kaiser's forces of men very badly needed in forward movement again: the French frontier. The general staff believes that all tie Germans will do will be to post a force sufficiently strong to hold the Belgian army in Antwerp, thus protecting its flank from attack, while the main body of the German army continues to press southward.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.