WAR NOTES.

Colonist, Volume LVI, Issue 13598, 7 October 1914, Page 3

WAR NOTES.

GERMANS' ENTRY OF BRUSSELS

BRUSSELS, August 20. The Germans enteivd Brussels shortly after 2 p.m. to-day without firing a shot. ' ■ X -

Yielding to tho dictates of reason and humanity, the civil government at tho last moment disbanded the Civic Guard, which the Germans would not recognise. The soldiers and ordinary police were then entrusted' with the' maintenance of order. ■. - •

After a day of wild panic and slumborless nights, the citizens remained at their windows. Few sought their couches. ■. ■ .

The morning broke brilliantly. The city was astir early, and on all "lips were the words ''They arc here/ or "They are coming 1" •'.. ' The "they" referred to were already outside the boundaries in great force. Tho artillery was packed off on the road to1 Waterloo. Horse, foot and sapper were packed deep on the Lou/ain "and Tenervuefen roads.

An enterprising motorist came in with tho information and the crowds in busy centres immediately bccan.e oirtm. At 11 o'clock it was reported that an 'officer with a half troop of hussars bearing white iiags^had halted outside the Louvain gate. *"**' . ■ The burgomaster and four sheriffs went in a motor-car" to meet the officers. They were, conducted to the German military authorities at the head of tho column. The meeting took_ place outside the barracks of the carabineers.

The bugomaster claimed for the citizens their right under the laws of war regulating an unfortified capital. When''roughly asked if he was prepared to surrender the city with the threat that otherwise it would be bombarded, the burgomaster said ho would do so. He also decided to remove his -scarf of office. .

Thf-discussion- was brief. "Whew the burgomaster handed over his sscarf it was handed back to him and he was thus entrusted for tho time being with the civil control of the citizens. The Germans gave him plainly to understand that he would lie held responsible for any overt act on the, part of the populace against the Germans. From noon until 2 o'clock the crowds waited expectantly. Shortly after 2 o'clock the booming of cannon and later the sound of military music conveyed to the people of Brussels the intimation that the triumphant march of the enemy on the ancient city had begun.

On they came, preceded by a scouting party'of Uhlans, horse, foot and artillery" and sappers, with a siege train complete. .

A special feature of the ..procession was 100 motor-cars..on which quickfirers were mounted. Every regiment and battery was headed by a band, horse or foot. :

Now came the drums and fife; now hte blare of brass and soldiers singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" and "Deutschland Ueber Alles."

Along the Chausses de Lauvain, past St. Josse. and the Botanical Gardens, to the great open space in front of the Grare dii Noid, the usual lounging place of the tired twaddlers of the city, swept the-legions'of the man who broke the peace of Europe. Among the cavalry were the famous Brunswick Death's Head Hussars and their companions on re any bloody fields, the Zeit-en Hussars. But where was the liloi-ious garb of the German troops, the 'cherry coloured uniforms of the horsemen and-the blue of the infantry? All is ••greenish,, earth colour grey. All the helmets are covered with grey. The suns arc painted grey. The gun carriage*"'are grey. Even the pontoon bridges are grey. To tho quickstep beat of the drums the Kaiser's men march to the great Square Charles Rogier. Then at the whistling sound of the word of command—for the sonorous orders' of tho German officers seemed to .have gone the way of the brilliant uniforms—the grey clad ranks broke into the famous goosestep,■;while the good people of Liege and.Brussels gazed at the pass-; ma wonder with mouths agape. At the railroad station the great procession d«file<l to the boulevards arid thence 'marched to encamp on the heights of the city called Kochflberg. ■It was truly a sight to have gladdened jthe eves of the Kaiser, but on the sidewalks men were muttering, beneath their breath. "They'll not pass here' on their it-turn. . The.Allies will ..do, lor them.' 3 x, Many of the younger men in the great array seemed exhausted after tJio long forced march, but as a man sta^p-red his comrades in tho ranks helU. him up. ' ItSvas a great spectacle and an lm-pro-'si-ve' one, -but there wer.<» minor incidents that were of a less pleasant character. .... -- Two ■.Belgian officers, manacled and fastened to the leather stirrups of two ! Uhlans, made a spectacle that caused a low' murmur of resentment from tho citizens. Instantly Gorman .hor&eiven [backed their steeds into the closely i packed ranks-of the, spectators, threatening them'with'.uplifted swords and stilling the momentary, revolt. . At one point of 11-e march a-- lame hawker offered flowers for. sale to the soldiers. As he held up-his poises a Captain of Hussars by a movement oi his stood sent the poor wretch «pra\vlinn- and bleeding in the' dust. Then j from the crowd a French woman, her heart scorning fear, cried out, "iou brute!" so that all might hear. There was one gross pleasantry too, perpetrated by a gunner, who led along a bear, evidently the pet of his battery, which was dressed in. full regalia or a Belgian General. . The bear was evidently intended to represent the King. He touched his cocked hat at intervals to his Keeper. This particularly irritated 'rhp Belgians but they wisely abstained irom I any overt manifestalion or any unpleasant feature, of behaviour. lho soldiery as they passed tore'repeatedly at the national -colours, which every Belgian lady now wears on her breast. A more pleasantjncident was when a party of Uhlans clamoured for admittance on the-Lbv.raih road. They disposed of a dozen bottles of wine ana bread and meat. The non-commission-ed officer in command, asked what the charge was and offered some gold pieces in payment The money was refused. Neai the steps of Sfc Cudulo a paiU of-offi<M s of hiprh wnlv, in .i motor car, confiscated tho stock of the news vendois After gieed'h scanning the sheets they biust into loud laugiiter. ' . Ho-in aft^i boui, hour aftei houi, the Kaiser's legions m^iehed into Bi-usso's streets and boulevaids Sarre legtments made a vo>y fine ppp^uance, and it is well that the people of ima,-land-should 'mow thift Tt A\as notably so in the case oi ihe Si^twixlh, Fourth and Twentvwxth lecm^rts Not oic 'mi' o£ tL«<* lparnents showed any sign of the gruelling maich, and no xloMlib tl jicloi U> ' goobe step" was desioiietll'y n^on to impress the onlookers with tbe- poweis of lesistfinco of the Geiman soldieis . The laihvay station*-, the post office and th^ Town Hall weie at once closed The na+ionol flic; on the l«iU«i 11 pulled down and the Geirian emblem hoisted m its place Prif fcicillv all the shops were tlosed and the blinds drawn on most of tho windows —New York ."Sun "