BELGIUM'S NEW ARMY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2961, 27 December 1916, Page 8

BELGIUM'S NEW ARMY

THE KING AND HIS MEN

A POWERFUL RESERVE

Writing in tho "Daily Mail," Mr. F. A. M'Kenzie, the well-known war correspondent, gives an interesting account of what Belgium is doing ill the war, and of the latter-day condition of iielgian Army.

U'nat are the Belgians doing? Why do we hear littlo or nothing of their anny? What has happened to it?

These questions have been freely asked for some littlo time past. To find an answer tojliem I have visited the Belgian lines and travelled from Boesinghe, north of Ypres, where the Belgians join up with tho British, to tho sea. 1 havo found a now Belgian Army in existence, a powerful reserve force for the Allies, waiting eagerly for tho hour to come when, it may advance. Out of tho stricken remnant that survived the retreat from Antwerp and tho battle of tho Yser there has grown a fighting force of young men, led by officers seasoned in war, newly equipped, with an ample supply of guns of every kind. They constitute a striking force of infantry and cavalry, with an evergrowing reserve ready to fill up losses in the ranks. '

At tho head is King Albert himself. I met him among his men, a soldier among soldiers, dressed in. the simple uniform of a Belgian general, accompanied only A.D.0., supervising, organising, sharing their life in the trenches and in the rest camps. It is impossible to see without some emotion this monarch moving from trench to trench in the little strip of his own territory yet left to him, looking strangely young and cheerful despite all. The people who say that he has aged much in the last two years are misinformed. Active, confident, practical, and simple, he holds the hearts of his Belgian soldiers moro surely today than ever he did.

Contrast the Belgian Army of to-day and tho army during my last visit two years ago. Then a little remnant, all escaped from Antwerp, was fighting with the fierceness of despair to savo the last line of Belgian defence. To the rear, towards Dunkirk • and Calais, were uncounted companies of wounded and invalias, masses of rags and dirt, a tragic spectacle. The towns were choked with wounded and with refugees. There was a lack of overything. Invalids scarce able to crawl were burying the dead to save an epidemic. Forty odd thousand worn-out soldiers were clinging on to' twenty miles of canal banks and' wrecked towns, holding back the advance of 150,000 triumphant Germans. Their very dress was mid-Victorian; their guns were outranged and outclassed ; their munitions wero scanty. French gunners and French cavalry flew to their aid, but oven before the French came the force of the German attack had been broken. I was there and speak of what I know. absorbed in the fighting then going on at Ypres, did not realise then—l doubt if'she has realised yet—what Belgium did at the Battle of the Yser. Had she failed, all .the splendid bravery of French's men would have been wasted, for our position would have been turned.

t Belgium emerged from that battle with her infantry reduced to 32,000, and with half the remnant of her guns saved from other fields, put out. 1 of action. Her little Army in holding up the great German machine had been smashed'by it.

That was yesterday. Wliat of to-day? To-day the situation is transformed. A process of reconstruction was at onco begun, and during the past two years the Army has been rebuilt from the foundation. The quaint uniforms have disappeared and have given placo to the universal khaki—khaki with certain minor picturesque decorations which the Belgian loves. The uniforms are good; the boots are good; the very steel helmets of the cavalry are covered with khaki. The gas helmets are, to my mind, far Letter than, those-used by our own men when I was last with them.

Simplicity of lifo and cheerfulness of spirit are the note of this new Army. To-day I lunched with the staff of one divisfbn. All sat together around one long plain, table, the general-ill-chief sitting like a father in the centre. The mess-room was plain, the food was soldiers' fare,- and there was a not 6 of cheerfulness from top to bottom of the room. Later in the v:hi)o walking behind the trenches, 1 heard time after time sounds of singing. It was the rank and file gathered together .when work was over. Nearly all tho private soldiers are between twenty and thirty. .

Belgium had to,obtain men. Numbers of those who had fought on ,the Yser were broken in the fighting. Tho now recruits were raised by compulsorj service among the Belgians living m England and .France and by the pressure of public opinion. The man whoso sons were living in safety abroad was looked upon as little better than a traitor.

Simultaneously with tho raising of Eresla. troops the machinery for supplying the Army with necessary equipment and munitions was re-created. Tho French provided Belgium not only with fresh Government headquarters at Havre, but also with considerable land in the north. Large parts of Calais wharves were loaned to them, and the little port of Gravelines became in effect Belgian. Munition factories arose in France.

FreJli officers' schools for young subalterns were opened. The medical service was extended and improved in _a very remarkable way. To-day there is a splendid service of hospitals behind tlie-Belgiau lines ready for tho coming days when fighting in earnest is renewed. There are ambulances, many of them presents from England, staffed in nearly all cases by Belgians. I noticed one at work marked 011 the outside "Presented by the Wakefield Girls' High School.'' There are about five hundred doctors in the medical service. The hospitals rigbt 'at the front contain 1800 beds for the seriously wounded. and behind them are others ready for the cases when they can be moved.

During tho process of reconstruction the Belgians did not attempt an offensive. They were not in a position to do so. This does not mean that they have had no fighting. Along tho different .parts of tho front, more particularly in the Boesinglio and Dixmudo districts, tho Germans liavo attacked time aftor time as they hay* done lower down at Ypres. Tho Belgian Army has had tlie common defensive experiences of the British and the French. Very little lias beon said about this fighting in England because tho Belgians have not yet organised their publicity side. To-day, however, even this fighting has very largely died down and there is comparative peace all along {tie northern front. This is duo to tho fact that tlio Gormans liavo drawn away all possiblo men and munitions to tho Sonimo. I had a striking example of this myself a fow hours ago. In company with a Belgian Staff officer I visited one section of the trenches. My companion leaned leisurely over the parapet and pointed out in detail the German positions just across tile banks of the Yser Canal. He showed me their first line, and then, some way behind, 'a bit of rising ground where their second line could be seen. From where wo stood tho miridd countrysido

around us might" havo been deserted save for our sentries and tho men in our own dug-outs. There .was not a sound of life and not a sound of activity. The officer stood up in full view of the lines. Only once 3icT wo Hear the sound of a rifle, and that was some distance away. Tho that wo heard wore being fired at Ypres. "What Joes this mean?" I asked my guido. Tho commandant smiled. _ "The Germans are afraid/' he said. "They have been sent here, broken, to rest, and their .cliicf fear is lest we sliould open out on them. They know that if they send a bomb or a bullet over our lines we would hit back, and hit back hard."