UHLAN-CHASING

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 82, 3 October 1914, Page 3

UHLAN-CHASING

HOW THE BELGIANS DO IT J. M. N. Jeffries, the Brussels correspondent of the London Daily Mail, recently wrote to his paper :—: — I made my way to Diest and Haelen. There were some encounters with cavalry patrols in the neighbourhood of these places in the morning, but the main body of German troops has fallen back. Turning into one long stretch I saw a cloud of dust in the distance which grew nearer with tremendous speed and volume, and presently a large grey motor-car dashed past, the driver taking one hand off the wheel for an instant as he passed to wave wildly, and crying, "Retoumez." Nothing, however, occurred. The roads into Diest were bordered with soldiers in all the' variety of uniform the Belgian Army affords, the majority, though, of the small, stocky infantry of the line, unshaven from the trenches and clad in dust. I had much less trouble than usual in getting past; my car, like all cars here now, has an outward signification of its duties, and the board with Daily Mail upon it served as a real passport, the troops waving their kepis and other headgear and cheering. I had hardly got into Diest through the various barriers of wagons and barbed wire and into the square before the church where German overcoats and weapons and helmets are piled, when I got a glimpse of the way the Belgians conduct their campaign against the Uhlans. A body of thirty of them was reported near. Major van Doren, whose daring in the fight the other day 'drew him so much notice and who is in command of the troops at present in Diest, has his own means of communication with his outposts for a radius of five kilometres. There are intermediate spots from which warning is given, and thus the outposts draw in automatically in a circle containing the enemy's men. Eight Uhlans had been taken in this way in the morning. On the present occasion Major van Doren came hurrying down the steps of the Town Hall. There were two other ca.rs in the little square beside mine. AH were pressed into service ; lancers leapt in beside me, Major van Doren got into another car, and we went off at a round speed. The whole population seems to enjoy Uhlan chasing j it is treated as a sport. A couple of cyclists tore along at full speed beside us. There was, as it happened, no material result ; the Uhlans were farther out than it was thought, and I witnessed' no capture. But it was regarded as certain in the course of the late, afternoon at Diest. There is no doubt about the Belgians now. Haelen had a melancholy aspect with ruined smoking houses, though there was a curious immunity. Houses were either ruined or scarcely touched. The interior of many had been sacked by the Germans and the windows were smashed by bullets and lance-blows. There were red stains in the streets where the heaps of horses had been lying. Out beyond the village on the scene of the fighting were the graves of the fallen, rough heaps of soil in the fields. Lances had been planted on those of the German officers and a pathetic scrap of paper with a name scrawled in pencil.