As to the exact state of the battle of the
coast it is very difficult to form an estimate as we write on Friday, but apparently the German line runs from the coast through Dixmude and Roulers—a place which has been taken and retaken and is now in our bands—to Courtrai. All the accounts show that we have held our own well, and that the German losses have been very heavy. There is great talk of the Germans having to evacuate Ostend and Bruges, and even Ghent, but this must be taken with a great many grains of salt. What seems to be more likely is that every available man was drawn from these places to be put into the firing line. Antwerp, it is also stated, has been denuded of almost the whole of the garrison which the Germans first put there. That the Germans will ultimately be forced back in Belgium is our firm belief as well as our hope, but the public must expect it to be a slow, not a quick, process. It may mean several weeks' fighting.
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