Page:The Great War.djvu/252

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222 The Great War seemed that the Germans were about to undertake in Belgium. As the British under Sir John Moore were driven back to Corunna and there compelled to take ship, the Belgians were now to be captured or driven out of Antwerp, or west to Ostend, to Ghent, to France. Antwerp itself could be of little present value to Germany, since an attempt to use it as a naval base, even if possible, would in- volve a violation of neutrality which might bring Holland into the enemy's camp. But Antwerp taken, the Belgian army captured or driven out of Northern Belgium, three army corps, vitally needed to the south, would be released. Belgium, save for the district about Ostend, would be completely con- quered and the last Belgian army disposed of. So long as there was a Belgian army in being, the whole country was likely to continue its irregular warfare, but it seemed not improbable that the cap- ture of King Albert's army would break the spirit of a gallant little people, utterly crushed at last by the might of German arms. On the other hand if German retreat from Northern France should follow the Battle of the Aisne, the Belgian army would presently be re- leased by the Allied advance, could operate on the left flank of the Anglo-French army and compel the evacuation of Brussels and all of Northern and Western Belgium, might be as useful to the general Allied cause as was that of Wellington, which flowed

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