GERMAN UNPREPAREDNESS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 12 August 1914, Page 4

GERMAN UNPREPAREDNESS.

BELGIANS COXSIDFR TFF SITUATION SATISFACTORY

Th t» -i " r<u L9 NDON, Aug. 11. lhe Daily Chronicle states that GerP r a"y det^ ed thr^ armies to smash franco. The northern army, co-oper-ating Kith the Ardennes army, was to be flung against the French left while the third army held the French right m check. But the Belgians unset this scheme. Details from all the war centres are meagre. i Reconnaisance forces have temporarily ceased. j The French advance on Alsace has apparently proved that no great preparations had been made for the German advance near Belfort. | Experts conclude that the mass of the German armies, possibly 12 army corps, aggregating 600,000 men. is preparing to advance between Liege and Thionville. and the remainder probabV to Lorraine. The Belgian War Office claims that - the situation is satisfactory. Evidence of tinpreparedness on the part of the German attack is accumulating. German prisoners in Belgium state that new boots were served out, and their feet were cut to pieces in oonsequenc© of the high and heavy boots

A French states that the J'jench bullets are causing much more serious wounds than the German. Many stones are told of Germcn cruelties upon non-combatants but they apparently have little basis in fact, though there has been illegal execution of French subjects. The French troops have taken seven of the principal citizens at Montreus and Vieux as hostages.