Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-10-03 | Page 9 | Proof that Germans Laid Plans Long Ago

PROOF THAT GERMANS y.!0 PLANS LONG AGO Chemical Factory in France Storehouse for Pontoon Bridges; Charts Found. (Special War Dispatches of the International Interna-tional News .Service and London Daily Telegraph.) (By a Staff Correspondent.) IX BELGIUM, Oct. 2. From a church steeple' overlooking a vast stretch of northern Flanders, I saw yesterday yes-terday the. great guns of Antwerp throwing shells over the German trenches at Buggenhout, and there was no reply. Jn the middle distance Belgian Bel-gian infantry was still guarding the uncrossed un-crossed bridge of Termonde. Under the cover of darkness some plucky Belgian patrols crossed into Tre-monde Tre-monde last night, the main German force having retired to the next village of St. I Gilles, leaving only a few soldiers in occupation oc-cupation of the town. These were taken ta-ken by surprise and made prisoners. No resistance w-as offered. Like the iandwehr men whom I saw at Lebbeke, they seemed only too glad to be in captivity. Tliey were thin, ! dirtv and ravenously hungry. As soon as tliev were assured the- were not go-iug go-iug to be shot they asked for bread, one remarking: "We have bad nothing to eat for three days.'' During this successful little Belgian sortie one of the makeup civilians was caught redhanded. Over a peasant 's trousers, he was wearing the blue overalls over-alls of an artisan, lie proved to be a German carrying a revolver. No example shows more clearly the perfection of tile detail'with which the German plans were laid than one of which T have just learned. In the village vil-lage of Schoonaerde, on the south bank of'tho Kscaut, was a factory where certain cer-tain chemical products were manufactured. manufac-tured. It is owned by a German- and the workmen were alTof the samo nationality. na-tionality. Immediately war was declared de-clared the factory was searched. " Strange, indeed, were some of the chemicals discovered.' Tliey included nothing less than all' parts necessary for the construction of pontoon bridges. This,' lie it remembered, almost, on the bank's of a river of great strategic importance im-portance to. the Germans. There was also found a chart of the river, giving 1 every conceivable bit of information, such as widths at different points and depths. at all states of tide. This bv wav of sequel: Two days ago Schoonaerde was shelled and fired, and the ouh- building of any size not struck was the chemical manufactory.