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Show Plan Retirement of 35 Miles in LiHe-Bouai Sector. MOVING ARTILLERY: ; Wilson's Note Mas Not Reached German Front i Mutinies-Increase. rfrtt: v - VTTir THE ALLIED ARMIES IN i BELGIUM, Wednesday, Oct. 16. 9 p.i M. (By the Associated Press) The withdrawal of the Germans from the) iLille-Doual sector may become more , rapid daily. It is indicated that the j enemy contemplates retiring for at; least 35 miles on this front, probably splitting his flight into four groups1 to the rear. j Because of the defeats inflicted on the Germans in Flanders, a retirement has now become or greatest urgency. Enemy-artillery in the Lille area is being moved back five miles. As n mallor of fact it has been expected ex-pected thnt the enemy ' withdrawal would begin sooner than it has, but apparently orders for this movement were postponed because the German high command wished to save as much material as possible. All prisoners are complaining of a lack of supplies. Lille will not be destroyed but- the cause for this has been divulged. Wilson's Note Has Not Reached Frort President Wilson's note has not had time to reach the Germans at . the front. It Js not improbable that "the higher command is beginning to realize rea-lize the horror that would sweep over the world if beautiful Lille should be levelled. The British, however, will be sure that prisoners' statements that uiu ciiy win pe spareu are correct only when they themselves are In Lille and find it undented and undamaged. Prisoners say orders have been given giv-en permitting all civilians of Lille except ex-cept men of military age to remain in their houses if they so desire. This may be true, but soldiers on this front, having been eye witnesses to German cruelty, barbarism -and love of destruction, destruc-tion, are inclined to be skeptical. German Mutinies Frequent Gorman army commanders seem to J be having a more difficult time in suppressing mutinies and revolution- j ary outbreaks. - Information has been! received of several outbreaks among men on their way to the front from leave or from recruiting depots. In some of these disturbances, mutinous mu-tinous troops have fired on forces sent ' to coerce them. It would seem that no train arrives at the front from the . German interior without losing a large number of soldiers by desertion. An order signed by a Gorman Avar minister minis-ter who has since been relieved of his portfolio calls the attention of all to these distturbances and orders that no soldiers be permitted to have ball ammunition in their possession while traveling. It also provides for closed railway carriages in which the men are to bo locked as virtual prisoners. "Energetic non-commissioned offi-' cers must be placed In charge," the order" says. "It is essential that no man at any time he permitted to feel that ho is free from supervision. If necessary forco must bo employed to break resistance. Requests for assistance assis-tance must be sen,tt by telegraph." WITH THE ALLIED ARMY IN BELGIUM", Oct. 16. (By the Associated Associat-ed Press) This, undoubtedly is, one of the war's greatest and most vital victories, vic-tories, for the gallant little Belgian; army, ably assisted by crack French and British troops now has driven the despoilers of Its country from a large section which the Germans have occupied oc-cupied since the enrly duys of the war and has gained positions of such importance im-portance that tho Germans may have to abandon tho entire coast , of Belgium. Bel-gium. Moreover . the weeping advance "of (Continued on Pago i.j i oo- Huns in Rapid Retreat (Continued From Pago 1) the allied infantry, preceded by a fan of French cavalry advancing rapidly, has left the entire area in which are the important city of Lille and the great mining nd "manufacturing district dis-trict of Turcoing, Reubalx and Tour-nal, Tour-nal, in a salient which is growing deeper every hour and which the enemy ene-my cannot hopo to hold. The French, cavalry which is on4he crest of the allied advance has done marvelous work. Todav it galloped forward more than ten kilometers, frequently fre-quently carrying out charges with a dash usually Associated with cavalry upon isolated posts of enemy machine gunnors which vainly attempted to bold up its advance. Some of these gunners, taken prisoner, said thoy were totally unable to understand why the war was going on and why they were called upon to continue fighting. One officer said: "Wc have offered all tho terms in the world for peace: nohorfv sooms willing to accept them." Resistance, where it has been offered of-fered by the enemy, has been extraordinarily extra-ordinarily fierce, for in these places It obviously has been the purpose of tho commanders of the fleeing Germans Ger-mans to gain time in which to remove their materials. Stubborn fighting has been reported especially from the region of ThourouL The battle here has boon from street to street and house to house and largo numbers of tho enemy havo boon killed. Some Belgian forces have swept around the city in order to cut the roads at the rear and also assist in bottling up tho enemy trying to hold out in the city itself. The Germans had placed machine guns In the windows of houses and cellars and fired murderous streams of bullets into the advancing Belgians but were unablo to stop them. The "Belgians fought with a dogged determination determ-ination such as only troops fighting to regain their outraged country could display. Nothing could stop them, the British following up the retreating Germans and overcoming the rear guards are reported as reaching Ques-" noy and havo captured Linselles, along tho Lys. The Belgians at tho time this dispatch was filed were reported to be past Keyem and to have reached positions on the other side of Cachten and Ardoye, both of which they cap-Itured. cap-Itured. Northeast of Courtrai, Bavich-ov Bavich-ov was stormed and taken and the Belgians Bel-gians were still going. The Linselles position Is most valuable val-uable for the place being northwest of Turcoing, the allied troops tire outflanking out-flanking the entire Lille salient from which there are further signs that the enemy is withdrawing. As a matter of fact his troops in this salient are in an extremely precarious position. Thev must get out rapidly or face disastrous consequences. .muuouuu more prisoners and many more cannon have been captured. The Germans at many places, especially in the northern part of the battle area, seem to be surrendering freely. Many more civilians have been rescued from the towns and districts captured and IUtlo processions of these are straggling strag-gling rearward out of range of tho guns and out of (he way of the fighting fight-ing troops. Stories are beginning to come back how liberated Belgian women wo-men have seen their sons, brothers or husbands going forward into battle. Quite a number of civilians also have been rescued from Roulers and ts environs, the Germans having left n such a hurry that they had not time to remove the civilians who wanted to stay and take a chance of being liberated. liber-ated. Today these men, women and C ,, r?nT,Qro agaln walking on tho free soil of France. Tho Germans appear to be making strenuous efforts to save their munitions muni-tions and equipment and their mater- ESS I II IIP mini aBsa I 6 ial, the accumulation of four years', . ' from the districts of Belgium. The roads behind the Germans are littered i$ with all sorts of transports and al- ' lied airplanes are again playing Jiavoc J with the retreating enemy. r g The weather today was cloudv, buU jpj thus far no more rain has fallen. How- i W ever. Flanders is mud from ono end to' -SV the other and this condition makes thei movement difficult for tho allied Hti troops. Tho ooze and soft ground. W make it doubly difficult for the enemy'?' to move back. Therefore the allied-. soldiers have put up with great hard-! ships for they realize that tyiey have:N. the enemy on the run in the most vi- m tal section of the west front and do 'M U not desire to let him have a chance M f to re-assemble his tattered units. I Outside Courtrai the infantry tosmiSt progressed about three miles and here I W have been compelled to fight their way JilW forward for the Germans had orders .1. jjt.V to hold on to the last and they did so. M & Not many of thoso who had been sta- flllv tioned to machine guns to try to bold ;. N up the advance of tho allied troops -IF managed to escape. ilil. . At the Thiolt positions the French Vil cavalry has begun to come into a fAh country where the grounds and roads rlv', are harder, allowing them to operate t ' Y moro freely. It Is through -this gap j L that the Germans throughout the cn- jl.'js. tiro Belgian coast system must go if jji they wish to save themselves, provid-ing provid-ing of course, the advance continues. 5?. Incidentally every yard of advance "Mg here narrows the enemy's escape gap. .'K1 |