To follow in detail all the gallant work done by the Belgian field army in harrying the invade ers and inflicting all possible losses on' them, is impossible in the space at command.: Never! was contest so' unequal; never was one so indefatigably waged by puny antagonist to giant strength: and when on August! 22, to the horror of' the whole civilized world, Louvain was te-liberately burnt to the ground, on a paltry and apparently trump ped up charged: that a few civilians had fired on German troops, the real. motive was undoubtedly lust for vengeance on the nation that had so seriously and so unexpectedly disturbed German calculations. The bombardment of) Namur began on August 23, and this fortress, accounted lar! stronger than Lidge, fell to the: siege guns, which the Germans had brought up-under cover of! fog, in forty-eight hours. On the! 26th Malines was bombarded and completely wrecked. Aerschot and Dinant followed in due' course. Throughout September the Belgians were making preparations for the siege of Antwerp, and early in October a force of 8,000 British marines was thrown into the city to stiffen the defence. These men were to a large extent raw levies, and Mr. Winston Churchill was severely criticized for sending them. Yet there can be no question that they did invaluable work; and upon the fall of Antwerp on October 9, after a siege that lasted less than a fortnight and u furious bombardment of the whole town, although 2,000 of the Nathe remainder cooperated most. skilfully with the Belgian army in effecting a safe retreat to tend, bringing away all the naval guns. Immense quantit'- of stores and ammunition were also safely destroyed before the eva-enation took place. With the fall of Antwerp all Belgium except southwestern Flanders was in German hands. Those hands had utterly destroyed four large cities, innumerable villages and On August 2, as noted above, German forces crossed the French border at Longwy. France re-talloted with a brilliant little campaign in Alsace, drove the Germans from Altkirch on August 7 and entered Mulhouse on the 8th, where the tricolour was received with acclamations. On the next day, however, the French were compelled to retire, their communications being threatened, but under General Pan they attacked afresh and once more occupied Mulhouse on the 17h. Meanwhile another line of assault was being delivered through Lorraine. Saarburg was seized on the 18th and ' the next day the Germans evacuated Upper Alsace. The growing seriousness of the position in northern France compelled General Joffre to recall General Pau on the 25th; but the campaign, for all it was apparently fruitless, had served a useful purpose. Tt had stiffened the morale of the French troops, taught them that. man for man, they had nothing to fear from the Germans and py the advance on Ssarburg had drawn off considerable numbers of the enemy from the Metz-Verdun region.
On August 18 the British cxpeditionary force completed its disembarkation in France. Its exact numbers are _unknown— possibly 100 to 150,000 men—but it may be said without boasting that in spirit, equipment and general efficiency its value was three times its paper strength. Indeed it has repeatedly had to face odds far greater than three to one and has done so with equal credit and success. From August 24 until September 5 the British troops were incessantly marching] and fighting rearguard actions against overwhelming odds; _yet they were ready to take their part in the great offensive Oureq and Marne with unflagging energy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.