THE RIVER FRONT AT BELGRADE

Evening Star, Issue 15907, 13 September 1915, Page 4

THE RIVER FRONT AT BELGRADE

A FIVE MONTHS' TRUCE. In company with a. distinguished office? who escorted me through the Serbian posts (wrote a 'Times.' con-respondent from BeLi grade at, the end of June); I have paid ais interesting visit to the most exposed portion of the river front of Belgrade. Hero the Save, above its confluence with the Danube, is some 700 or 750 yards across, and you can see with the naked eve any figure which moves on the enemy's "shore. From almost any part of Belgrade vou look across, of course, straight into the Austrian town of Semlin, crowning tho point of the high spur which juts out between the two rivers at their junction. l(j is a picturesque town, with the tall Eunyadi Tower m the highest point of the Tidge, climbing into the sky. Through glasses you can see "the enemy" moving about the streets, just as we go about in Belgrade, and you can note the marks ot the Serbian artillery on the houses. Each town —Serbian and Austrian—lies completely at tho mercy of the other's guns, and both have already suffered severely. Tho story of the present reign of "comparative peace—though we never know at what minute the boom of the guns may not begin—is curious. In February last the Austrians began a heavy .bombardment of Belgrade; so the Serbians immediately turned their guns on Semlin. It is said that by a luckv shot the Serbians with one shell killed aii Austrian general, and either killed or wounded 20 other officers.- However that may be, a parlementaire with a white flag presently put off in a small boat from the Austrian shore, with a proposal that each side should respect the other's citv and confine its fire to the outer fortifications and gun positions, so far as they were discoverable. This friendly agreement has been in force now for some montho. On two occasions the Austrian? have violated it and have 'dropped shells in greater or lesser number deliberateif into the city. In the main, however, the understanding has been observed. So it is that we walk about the streets of Belgrade with impunity, though 80 per cent, of the shops are'shuttered, the streets are almost deserted, and on every hand the roads and buildings ehow the marks of the enemy's handiwork. —A Peaceful War Scene.— To tho north and east of Belgrade one looks across the Danube, which k nowhere less_ than I,oooyds across, so that "snipnig ' with rifles is difficult. On the Austrian side, moreover, the banks are still flooded after the extraordinary wet winter, and beyond the line of trees, ankle deep in water, which marks the normal river bank, there i< a chining expanse of submerged land. From this'side of Belgrade, therefore, a* from the slopes of Kara Bourma, you can study the enemy's position in peace, unless he should chance to take a dislike to you and open on yon with field artillery or something heavier. An evacuated Hue of trenches and Serbian gun positions in Kara Bourma shows what excellent practice he can make. Happily a few warning shots on the preceding dav had induced the Serbians Ur move their batteries back to a • new .position in the night. It is well that thev did so, for next day? the former trenches were simply blown to bits. This happened six months ago. and as one stands on the eciges of the- great shell-pits where the Serbian guns once were, one looks .-.cross at the Austrian positions with a certain feeling of respect, not lessoned by the knowledge that the Austrians are doubtless, studying you through glasses and wonderI ing what you arc. .

It is a beautiful vmw that lies before you, with the bold promontory of Senilin on voir.' left, and immediately" befora vou the whole wide Danube, with "the low-lying islands-, now half flooded, of Cherveiika, Ivojara, and Grosser Kneg. Nature is now at its loveliest, and though you know that there are men with rifles iii trenches, behind those nearer trees and gun positions all over the slopes, from which vou are probably being watched, it makes a picture of idyllic rural beauty. —At Close Quarters. — On the west of the town, along the Save, where I was this morning, it is different. Here it is an easy rifle shot across the. stream, and tho whole river front is a scene of desolation, of tumbled bricks and shell-torn earth. Immediately on vour left is the ruined steel bridge across the Sav.3. Four spans of it are still visible, one end ot each resting on a pier while the other end is m the water. A'vacant pier in the middle sho.vs where the fifth span dropoed entirely into the river: and it is unfortunate that it did so, for there runs the. central channel, and the span has .sunkdeep enough to allow the enemy's monitory to pass over it. Here it m-;is that the. Austvians crossed the river in force when they invaded, and to cover their landing this shore was.swept clean by shell fire. It is a scene of utter waste where- nothing moves, except that at one point a little girl some six or seven years old in a ragged brilliant scarlet frock was chasing butterflies among the weeds and wreckage. The Serbian sentries, hidden further back from the shore, must hav<> let- lior pass. :iud the Austrians on tho other shore have tho grace to leave her alone. _ So, with rifles pointing over her head from either side, she chases buttcrflie.; among the vetch and chemomile, a little spot of scarlet in the bright sunshine darting about in an otherwise waste and untenanted world. For ourselves, we walked down behind the shelter of a half-ruined wall; then, turning the angle of it, we stood flat against its face, trusting to our khaki so to melt into the bricks behind us that, it we kept fairly motionless, we should not be, noticed. It was a. blazing hot morning, drawing in towards noon, and in the. heat and silence there was no sign of life. —The Invisible Enemy,— On> the Austrian side, the last span of the- bridge reaches the- shore at a point where the ground is high, and here, nestling among the trees; are two small houses o.; huts, tho doors and windows of whicn have been barricaded with sandbags, behind which presumably are riflemen. O.i the face of the rising ground we could see tho bumps and irregularities which marked the Austrian line of trenches. Hidden among the hushes opposite we knew w«r<> both rifles and machine guns. Almost every day there is more or less sniping from the posts on cither side ; now and again it develops into something like a skirmish. But during tho 20 minr.tes that; we stood there not a movement or a sound broke the stillness of the wasted shore at our feet, the river, or the banks on tha other side. Then the little girl in scarlet discovered us and came and gazed, and. sho was probably better protection than any brick walls. If she disclosed our presence to the enemy they could not well fire whilo eh© was at) our side. So we came away and she came' with us. walking in the middle of the road, while we once mora kent tinder the friendly wall. It is ay, of course, an extraordinary situation, which must he drawing to its dose. The floods which have fdrbklden an advance hithfito are rapidly subsiding, and the air is full of rumors. Then there will bo no more strolling* down to look at the enemy across 700 yards of open water, and no more chasing cf butterflies on this dveadful foreshore.