BEFORE AND AFTER

Timaru Herald, Volume CI, Issue 15444, 5 September 1914, Page 3

BEFORE AND AFTER

BELGI'FM AND TFfE GERMAN INVASION". ••A VICTORY TO BE BROFD OF." The. Germans have- won the first big battle of tfee war (say* the- Sydney • Mornrnj: Herald" ot" ±lad A«j;Tt»fc>- It U not a crtifhin;.; defeat—for th*r Franco-British lint" remaitw. intact, and the- Germans will have a very different task in betaking it. But it may bare IV ert a. fairly crnfeHns ite-feat for the Belgians. In sptto «f att tlu* reports that the Getmaxtj u.id been repulsed here and driven »ttt there, and captared somewhere —news which was all true la its way: but which only left oat the other side «E the —•tU«r»! i.» no. reasonable routa for doubting that to-day"?» catbles toai'y caeau this—that the German army buu> achieved its first evrwiderabb victory. And what a victory t Ttw? Kmperfr Wiiliaru H. l:a> beaten tlw* iW-j-an army. Three neeki a_T> along the border* ot Germany lay a small:, friendly, continental: Stat«... It wua at perfect peace with Che world. It had t*f> f(:i:arre| inch Germany, nor fie cm any with it. Its crowded unku—trial population, the thickest and, perhaps, the busiest in Eur-sp.-,. wa*. guing about its daily work, pro'lncing useful things for a£E the world, and rt'eeiving nsefnl thiniis in rutttrn. On every littl* farm that covered that thitrklysettfed cotrntrys'dr*'. the- indit-trionis peasantry was at work—the bent figures ire blue- smocks would he there, before the- morning mists had lifted, and the last ml fitfctit of the evening wnuld find them tramping bravely home between the hedges down the Jong Belgian lanes. That was the scene thire-' weeks ago. And "what has happened since- 't A great nation which had no fjnarreT whatever with these- people, wlrch had revtT pretended to> allege- a grievance* or oven t!w ph«wt of a grfevawv apaijist them-,, snddenly demandwl en. nuarc'ri thronph their c&tmtry. Watr-so- it was flat andl easy, to attack a nation which was the smalt nation's friend. N". ither itader 'ntemationa ttaw, nor under any other taiws. was there ttie Jttstificatroo for demandinf; this. It w:*a in di-ect breach of a treaty to which Germany's name stood as w« I! a> Enctand's —Germany had i»ivt-n in writ' her cia.ractce- of Belgium's netitraltty. Rnfc bi'mrno their ennntry. hap-penVd to b«> »a:cyf>fe for thr east? marvTt »? »a army, and because it happ».'n«d to. he- a IrttV natron, and not atrenj;. rmd tasiV KtrtFed. the written went was brtifdvd aside- tike »f> ntnclt eoKweb. Tlit» smalt nation wFttcJt worferd at Iter »'de in perfect peace- one day. w?* th» «hof<*. the next, of alVwint; Gt-t-niany's army to march' through attack a people- inttrnafiy a't'ed with_ the. Belgians. by bloo<l and Briendshitv. or eL»»? to be treated a» an enemy and crushed ont of existence-. The small nation, to its hononr. chose- the- Tatter alternative. —and what is the result ?

Th» mfokt st r lt rwe over tW* peawfrii farm TantU of thrPi? wpeks sincc Fmt tPif* hent figure* in tbf» WtiE- s root Em :>r>' there* no morp. arc 1 Tvinc. thousands of them, with their amorrtrst the. farrows that thpy tilled, shape'ess form* hcrt' and there p midst th-'i corn, hurdles «f tat.terpd irniforn:s ffUcnrteif »nd st'SF amongst thfir own- The- s>m stilt in a red Btrsb orcr the h ; tf< hut it R*»ds "ri wtrrrdv pennant ftidctpiir homo thntifcfr'Fr fie-id" his part tn h'« everi'ny moa!'. TVhei th" p"d ff r» 'oner day e rtrWfK; !t finels !r : ra—fhot;«aitd< n f hint—pit ref three nr four dw>, •dV'tfc and trorinnt-i-i, in the- tren"h thai; he ha l * sirt-> rHyfirpiitc rv«»ir-«fc h'j> country'* enemies. Tlr i rir ; s>* of" hn ha; s.'one- «r«r and past hours si we. Far away. ten. twenty miles, may be-, thr German eavalry is Iwcfcimts at hU brothers, s'lt-ilviny; and Hewing at th"ta a» ri»tr«at, dmvrt with machine swbs from every vant;t'.:e point *verv hesitatm™ rtu-stiWf rr--n that- it enn gee-. Th* Ormnn ar«iy h;.'s Tik» satip- irrrvstrhV errrjrne over nearly a fcimdrfetl rr'lt'M ot' tin* mr&t : nn went, i«fla«trious r-hy-o'y '*• ttl •«! emmtry io ETnrupe. Thorc-irmd-i it port tho - '-an'l» liare writhed its fus.t. It' in tin* viltfijreH the pf'iirfvirt farmers and fc*kers and confcVtttorH-ra of the tv.fk the mntcppr*"" ;, nd the peopV that kept the sweet shop. hav»« f, pn exasperated to the- point of fir-nu; tijori the advancing troops fro.tn ttis-rr windows, they h:tvc been hanwd i>r tried and stunt at day-break r< gntarly awl frankly =u'cwdin'4 u> the law* <»t war. The villa se* of a week ago have ti«m htrrred. the l ' pretty farm ho'i.. s etan dsmofcitKC, Th*' f'»>rnum i.vtuy li:--< ♦•nr-shcft main df fe"c»< ot' tfti, sntall nat : on Ijefoi-f it- friend- i»;ii'd r (, t to t!t<> hefo of it. arid K p!:i.*-i"s: it.s h«ot"d heel iif.ua tfie natinnat capftat. Ft tvil( cr> down to history. indt>?»t, a.-f a victory tf> be protid of I