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Show BOGHE FIGHTING SPIRIT Germany Is Both Beaten and Ruined, Recent Prisoners State. Plan to Take Everything Possible From France and Belgium. By PHILIP GIBBS. (New York Times-Chicago Tribune Cable, Copyright.) WAR CORRESPONDENTS', HEADQUARTERS, HEAD-QUARTERS, Oct. 30. Our armies are not attacking just now and the situation remains re-mains as it was around Tournai and Valenciennes. The latest information indicates in-dicates the German plan Is to retreat clear out of Belgium and France, taking as much material as they can in expectation expecta-tion of peace by the time they reach their frontiers. Germany is both beaten and ruined, recent prisoners say. However, the German gunners, who are the elite of their army, are fighting bravely and doggedly dog-gedly in order to gain time for the retreating re-treating " troops. Our pursuit has been too rapid for the enemy's plans of orderly withdrawal, and he is still holding on to his present line, because he has not had enough time to do his packing up and is afraid of losing masses of material; but behind these military arrangements, which are still being carried out with method and discipline, there are bigger things, which make them but the last demonstration of German militarism in the fields of war. Knowledge of Defeat. In spite of Hindenburg's order that German soldiers have no concern with politics, the imminent surrender of their army, the despair and passion that is breaking loose among their people and the knowledge of defeat, have broken the spirit of the German armies as a fighting machine, and they are not unconcerned with the doom that is upon them. Civilians Civil-ians In the newly liberated towns of Lille and Roubaix and others tell me the breaking up of German discipline- and wellbeing was plainly visible about a year ago, and during the last six months it could not be hidden. The fighting machine and fighting spirit spir-it of the men were wearing and withering and their horses became so thin and haggard hag-gard that even in the streets of Lille they used to drop down dead. The rations of the men were reduced and they became pinched and pallid. The arrogance of the officers, brutal beyond words in the early days to the citizens of Lille, became chastened, and among the men there was brewing a revolt against the officers' class and "capitalists," "capi-talists," whom they denounced as authors au-thors of the wan They were struck in the face and slapped with whips by their officers for any trivial offense, and they cherished these things up and said, 'We will cut their throats when we are free of this." Learned Liberty Meaning. They learned what liberty meant from the French people of those northern towns, who maintained their Independence, Indepen-dence, their spirit, their dignity and their pride against ail the oppression of the German commandants and German police and fines and imprisonments and blows in the face, for even women were cuffed if they happened to be two minutes late in closing their shops or if they smuggled smug-gled bread or cigarets to our prisoners, and the German soldiers said: "You people peo-ple have liberty in your souls, and we will have it too when this war ends, for now we live under tyranny." Always theconversation of the French civilians in these liberated towns goes back to the sight of our prisoners, and there is a sick look in their eyes when they tell of their sufferings. Hunger and Misery. "Sir," said a French barber last night. "I have seen your officers in fur coats stoop to pick up bits of bread from a dust heap in the road. When they first came tn they were robust and healthv andi jaunty so that they went whistling through the streets, to show thev were not downhearted, but after fifteen days they became thin and weak and stumbled aiong, with a dreadful look of hunger and misery. We used to stand along the tram lines, pretend. np In wait for trams, Hnd slip things into their hands as thev passed, but we were put in prison or struck in (he fae if the guards saw us. unless they happened to be good-natured men. who looked the other way, as sometimes some-times happened." Those memories are so fresh that every ev-ery time one stops in the streets or enters en-ters a shop in the liberated towns people peo-ple tells these things and one cannot forvret them, but because the horror has passed from theni the inhabitants of Lille and Roubaix and Toun'omg are very h&l -py. It is happiness which shines in their eyes and they smile and nod as one passes and there la great friendliness shown to any soldier who sTops to ask the way. Hoys and girls clamor for seats on any British Lorry passing through and crowd in next to the driver with beaming faces. Over and over again T bewr the words which 1 first heard in Lille on the mornJng aft t its liberation: "It is like a drin to be free again." |
