A dispatch from Flanders to the London _Daily Mail_, referring to
the condition of the Germans on the Yser, said:
"Nine hundred and ninety-one prisoners bagged in the fighting in
the neighborhood of Ypres on December 2 came to my notice to-day.
If these are a sample of the men left behind, then the German army
in western Flanders is in a sorry state. They walked dejectedly and
cursed the guards for hurrying them into anything more than a mile
an hour. Altogether, they were as sad a crew as ever surrendered.
"I saw some with boots without heels or soles and trousers which
were rotten to the knees from the constant wetness of the dikeland.
Many of the men had been indifferently fed for days, and many others
had been for weeks fully dressed and had not been able to bathe in
the filth-sodden trenches. One has to marvel at their endurance."
"GUIDED BY HEAVEN."
Copies of a proclamation which was to have been posted throughout
Servia by the Austrians were received from Vienna. "By the will of
God, Who guides the destinies of peoples and the strength of his
Majesty the Emperor Francis Joseph," it reads, "your country had
been subdued by force of the arms of the Austro-Hungarian army. You
have submitted to a rule just and wise of the Gospodar, who sent
us, not to avenge and punish, but to inaugurate a reign of truth
and justice. Trust in his clemency, trust in the soldiers, who love
justice and are conscious of their duty. They will be a strong guard
for your country which will protect you devotedly."