Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1918 — COAST LINE OF BELGIUM [ARTICLE]

COAST LINE OF BELGIUM

Nearly All of It, in Peace Time, Given Over to Seaside and Rest Resorts. Perhaps in no othe,rwar in modern history have a few miles counted for as much in the scales of victory as in the present contest in west Flanders, says a bulletin- of the National Geographic society. The distance which separates tjje allied force.s .from full control of the coast of Belgium is only thirty miles. .Possession of these thirty miles of coast line would not' only wipe out the- German submarine bases in Belgium, but it would also give the allies a new front upon which to attack in ah effort to drive the enemy out of Belgium and northern Europe. Possession of this coast, therefore, would be a double victory to the allies, solely hampering the enemy’s submarine operations, and at the same time affording an opportunity to roll up his right flank on land. Nowhere else may be found a more striking contrast between peace and war than that afforded by the Belgian coast In 1913 and 1917. Practically the entire coast line in normal times is given up to the pleasures of the seaside cities and rest resorts. La Panne, Coxyde-Plage, Oost-Duinkerke, Nieu-port-Bains Westende, MiJdelkerke, Le Coq-sur-Mer, Wenduyne-sur-Mer, Blankenberghe, Heyst-sur-Mer and Knocke-sur-Mer are all places which remind ond of the seaside cities of New Jersey. Of these, Ostend, Nleuport-Bain and Blankenberghe are the most pretentious. In these Atlantic cities, Cape Mays and Asbury Parks of Belgium laughter and happiness reigned with a care-free abandon thjt only European resorts could know, while today war on land, undm* sea and in the air harries the souls of the few'brave people who still remain there.

Between La Panne! and Oost-Duin-berke is the Hooge-Blikker, 105 feet high, the highest point of the Belgian dunes, and also the widest point. Just outside of Nieuport-Bains, in Jhe village of Lombartzyde, there is a celebrated figure of the Madonna, held in high veneration by Flemish fisherman from time Immemorial and to which the Flemings are today addressing their appeal that their land shall be liberated from the invader. Ostend is famous not only as a seaside resort but for its great fishing trade in normal times and for Its oyster parks. Oysters in large v numbers ar,e brought here and kept in clarified sea water. The visitor may order his plate of shellfish right out of the water.