"The bombing of the important railway junction at Lyons simultane-cus with the Belgian invasion seriously delayed the bringing up of reserves from the south of France.
"The Leopoldian betrayal made evacuation our only hope of saving the Allied armies of the north for future fighting in other areas. The Germans know it and there cannot be any indiscretion in saying so now.
"There is no semblance of a rout in the Allied retreat. Withdrawing divisions of the British and French are fighting one of the most superb rearguard actions in history.
"I met a young soldier who was only 19 years of age and belonged to a territorial battalion. He gave me a vivid account of the methods employed by the mechanical columns which constituted the German vanguard which tore through the fortifications of the French, captured Laou, Amiens and Abbeville and swept along the coast to Channel ports.
"There has been nothing like it since Attila rushed through the cities and plains of Italy with his swift horsemen.
"The British battalion—a few hundred strong—to which this young
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.