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Show IB NEWS FOR THE ALLIES. "Namur has fallen"' What a chill that announcement must have sent up and down the backbone of every Frenchman and Englishman on this Tuesday morning, only two days aft cr the biK armies were in contart' Xamur i6 on the Meuse river, a few miles north of the French frontier It was well fortified and admirably situated for defensive operations, but, notwithstanding that advantage in favor of the allies, the Germans 6w ept down on the forts and gained them in not much more time than It re-nulred re-nulred the American forces to capture cap-ture the Spanish blockhouse at San Juan. This Is a triumph for the Kaiser's forces, almost wholly unexpected, unex-pected, and Indicates either a mill tary blunder on the part of the French officers or a superiority of the German Ger-man fighting machine which presages a swift forward movement toward Paris. The French are receiving a bap-tit-m of blood that Is trying their met-tie. met-tie. If they are made of the right material, this first reverse will but fteel them to resist with mighty effort ef-fort and to fight stubbornly up to the point of annihilation, which, if ever reached, will render the victor quite as harmless as the vanquished, and leave Russia to drive home the war's decisive blow But have the French the required stamina and dogged determination0 Unless they were overwhelmingly outnumbered out-numbered at Namur, they displayed a lack of everything requisite to a stubborn resistance. The French are battling for their very existence as a nation and should be fighting with a resolve to do or die. A great army behind fortifications fortifica-tions should not be driven out until the losses have been appalling, and such punishment, it seems, could not have been inflicted on the French at Namur In two days, If they were pre pared for an attack. They must Show more tenacity, or they are beaten. |