| OCR Text |
Show : ANTWERP HAS A SERIOUS PROBLEM (Special war dispatches of the London Times.) Antwerp. Oct. 2. It -is an extraordinarily extraor-dinarily interesting experience to be shut up in s city into which a persistent per-sistent enemy is trying to batter h; way. At present there Is no direct I evidence in the city Itself or the enemy's presence for the firing is still too far away for the guns to be audible audi-ble ln Antwerp, The streets ore thronged nil day Mllltar; motor ears and those of. the Red Cross p.nss continuously, the latter lat-ter often bringing a lond of wounded from the outer forts Every time a Red Cross ear stops a crowd surges around it and a word dropped by on of the occupants Is enough to spread detailed rumors of disaster or st:r cess. Two soldiers who came jj from the forts yesterday in a condition of sheer panic did so much harm they were summarily dealt with by the au thoritles. At Waelhem a magazine near the fort was blown up, not by the enemy's shell, but by carbineers and the two men declared the whole fort had ben destroyed. As a matter of fact, news reacho here only in small fragments r.nd. apart from the dashing motor carp the only visible assurance that ilv crowd has that anything really Is bap pening is the constant circling of biplanes bi-planes over the enemy's position. Pitiable streams of refugees from the direction of Duffel, Uerre and Waelhem comp trailing Into the ell The Belgian general staff last evening even-ing took a more serious view of the situation than it has previously entertained, en-tertained, but to noon Thursday none of the outer forts had been siienced. Each attack by the German infantry in the intervals between against the forts have been successfully repulsed. If the forts were silenced the attack at-tack in force on the city would still have to be made along two or three high roads and the railway It ought to be possible to hold these few roads against almost any force. There is the alternative possibility of the enemy's advance with heavy guns to certain positions, whence they can shell the city at long range. This, at least, in case of the heaviest guns which alone outrange (he B?lgian artillery, ar-tillery, should be an extremely difficult diffi-cult operation, in the face of determined deter-mined resistance and to Belgian resistance re-sistance now to the very last is vital It would be foolish to underest;-mate underest;-mate the gravity of the situation, but -- i I am yet far from ready to take the T-'loomlest view. A word should be said of the won derfu ascendancy, which since the war bcRan. the king has established over the minds of his people. The testimony of the highest mill-1 mill-1 t authorities Is that he has shown himself a soldier of first rate ability and has demonstrated his possession pi ported fearlessness. His presence everywhere is an inspiration |
