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Show WILL GERMANS RETREAT? From tho orii'c mighty imluatrial city oi' Tjlle, from Kuuhaii and Turuoing, the Germans arc said to bo removing tho looms and all other kinds of ma-' ma-' L'liinery. This ia taken as an admission , liy the Teutons that they must soon j retreat before General Haig's drive ftir.i ward in the Ypres salient. The I twenty-five-mile retreat on the Sommc is cited as a precedent. It is 1 well j known that the Germans planned to re- , tire to the Himlenburg line last fall ' ; and delayed until spring only because bad weather made it impossible for 'the .British and French to continue their drive on an cxtenshe stale. A few hints of what was going on bark of the German lines in the autumn au-tumn of 1016 filtered through tho lines to the French and English, but it was not until they had occupied the zone from which the foe hud retired that they learned what thorough-going prop-ainlionH prop-ainlionH tho Germans had made for the retreat. The Germans found the laud an Filen and left it more desolate than a desert. They carried away machinery, tho stocks of tho shops and laetorios and all the household furniture, and before the command to retreat was given they destroyed all the buildings and sawed down all the trees in the orchards. y onie such process is probably going on in northwestern France and in Flanders. Flan-ders. Lille, Koubaix and Turcoing a remit re-mit directly in the line of Haig's eastward east-ward drive, being to the south, southeast south-east of Ypres. Lille is almost directly south of the lino to which Haig has now attained cast of Ypres. The important im-portant town directly east of Ypres is t ourtrai, and this, too, is probably being be-ing denuded ot" its goods and machinery. ma-chinery. A hen the retreat comes, whether this year or next, all of t heso places must be evacuated, and the Germans intend to leave nothing of industrial value U the allies. Meantime they will set up the machinery in German towns so that there may be no decrease in their own producing power. Even though tho British are unable to occupy Lille and the other towns this year they need advance only a few miles more to place the towns under artillery ar-tillery fire. In that event the factories would be rendered useless for German purposes. It is to provide against either contingency the capture of the towns or the bombardment of them that the J Teutons are moving the machinery to places where it can be utilized to its full capacity. Jf The allies are interested in knowing to what line the enemy intends to retire, re-tire, and we may be sure that their air scouts have been able to gain some idea of the German plans. If the Teutons Teu-tons retreat only twenty or twenty-five miles they can sGII retain their grip on the ports of Ostend and Zeebrugpe, lor they can hinge their line to the coast at the point where it now ends, near Xieuport, and by holding fast at this point they cau retreat in the Ypres region re-gion at least twenty miles before being be-ing compelled to yield a mile at th'e roast. Their plans might be seriously disarranged if the British and French should risk the perils of a landing back of the Teuton lines between Nieunort and Ostend. or even farther north, between be-tween Ostend and Zeebrugge. Success in such an undertaking would wreck the whole German line in Flanders and force a retreat probably from Antwerp and Brussels. |