Ours the initiative

Von Kluck bewildered

Allies’ excellent progress

At all events it cannot be said that the fortified strongholds of France and Belgium have fulfilled the hopes of their designers and in the view of later events we can only marvel at the magnificent defence Liege made.

Antwerp one hopes, but not with any real confidence, will hold out long enough for succour to reach it and one message this morning states that the position in Belgium holds no apprehension.

Other messages however are of a different character.

The Germans are reported to be using incendiary skills and a considerable portion of the City is said to be in flames.

By continuous battering the enemy will soon make big gaps in the fortress centuries and after that it seems difficult to believe that the defence can be maintained. There is another side to the question.

The garrison so far as can be ascertained is probably 125,000 strong and the attacking forces are perhaps at the same strength.

In normal circumstances it would mean that the advantage lay with the defenders and that an attempt to push the assault home would be of too costly an operation to undertake.

Even in the present circumstances, one wonders whether the Germans mean to take the risk for there seems to be a general opinion that Antwerp would be of no great military advantage to Germany especially as the Belgian army and garrison should be able to make a good retirement towards the sea.

Possibly the blonde beasts think Belgium has not suffered enough and that to further spread the blessings of German cultures is necessary to destroy another city or two.

Already the kaiser has the satisfaction of knowing that he has rendered another 500,000 innocent civilians homeless and apparently he is not likely to weary of well doing in this direction until we have him fairly by the throat.

In certain circumstances the German strategy may from their point of view seem desirable, they may have imagined that recent developments were tending to make it possible for the forces at Antwerp to cooperate closely with the allies in a serious move eastwards against the main German lines of communication.