"BELGIAN MENACE."

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 5850, 25 September 1917, Page 3

"BELGIAN MENACE."

f A GERMAN ADMISSION. Lieut.-General Baron ran FreytagTorighoven, Chief of the Supplementary General Staff of the German Army, in an article recently printed in a German newspaper, admits thiei falsify of the German pretence that the violation of Belgian neutrality in the campaign of August, 1914, was ,flue to military and defensive necessity provoked by alleged preparations of the French to invade Germany through Belgium, and the Germans profited greatly from the resulting confusion and delay.' , Stories of French, troops marching through Belgium durin gthe initial days of the war and o fairplane arid automobile attacks from Belgian territory, and otebr fairy tales which figure' so largely in German justification of tliei invasion of Belgium, are not mentioned in General von Frey-tag-Laringhoven’s art iele. After describing the advance' of the bulk of the German force' westward •consisting o. c four armies, composing its centre and right wing, through neutral Belgium and Luxemburg, beginning 18th August, 1914, he says “The F'rench main concentration was originally accomplished between Belfort and tluei Belgian frontier, and the first intimation that they contain, plated a German advance through Belgium resulted in a shift to the left. . . The Entente Allies recognised only on 17th August that strong German forces also were advancing in a wide enveloping movement on the left bank of tin ll River Meuse, where previously they had assumed that only an army, of cavalry, strengthened by some infantry, was present. .“In consequence of the original erroneous concentration directed toward the ast, tlie French Fifth Army del not succeed in'advancing beyond the line oi Dinant-Cliarleroi by 22 nd Aug. nst, and was forced to content himself with holding the passages of-the rivers Sambre and MeuseJ** The article proceeds to describe the disastrous effect of the sweep of that unexpected German flood upon successive French armies. an;l the advance to tthe Marne. General von Freytog-Loringhoven declares that the Germans retreated from tlie Marne irecause they were too weak to break through the French tines but he argues that although filial success was missed there, Germany, by seizing the opportunity of a daring advance through Belgium, avoided war on her own territory. The newspaper says that the article of Genera 1 von Freytag-Loringboven, who i- Germany’s leading military historian and writes on tire basis of tli> official General Staff records, is circulated semi-off icially in tin German press. ,