BELGIUM’S AIMS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 308, 5 October 1940, Page 5

BELGIUM’S AIMS.

TWO MINISTERS BROADCAST. INTEREST WITH BRITAIN. LONDON, October 3. Two Belgian Ministers-broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (Continental wave-length to the Belgian people to-night. They were M. Gutt, the Finance Minister, who spoke in French, and M. Albert de \ leeschauwer, tlie Minister for Colonies, who broadcast in Flemish. Stating that they were speaking on Belgian Ministers said that M. Pierlot, the Belgian Prime Minister, speaking in France on July 21, had defined Belgium’s position, but although this finition was of the utmost importance to all Belgian people, the French Government had refused to allow it either to bp broadcast or communicated to the newspapers.

It was inevitable, the Ministers continued, that after four months of separation they and the Belgian people would not think alike on all points, but there were certain principles which were embodied in the programme of the Belgian Government on which all would agree.

/Giving this programme, the Ministers said: “Belgium is occupied by German armies and the King is a prisoner. We are the only legal Belgian Government, the only Ministers appointed by the King. We want a free Belgium and a free King. We want them completely and entirely free, as they were before August 4, 1914, and before May 10, 1940. To achieve'’ this aim we will fight side by side with Britain till final victory. “On May 10, 1940, Belgium was unjustifiably attacked and took up arms and appealed to her guarantors. Since that date Belgium has not concluded any armistice, even less signed a peace treaty. Legally and effectively, she is at war with Germany, who is in Belgian territory and is in fact applying war measures!”

The Ministers said that they were speaking from England where they were “welcomed as brothers, where hearts heat in unison with ours, where our soldiers are already mounting guard, where our daring airmen have volunteered, and dispute their share of glory in the victorious battle of the skies, with all champions of freedom and liberty.”

They added that they were speaking “from the centre of London, the London that some of you may think a heap of ruins.” The Ministers recounted how they had walked through w'ido thoroughfares, perhaps a little deafened by the noise of anti-aircraft fire, but -without encountering any obstacles and without feeling that they ran a risk. Describing conditions in England they said: “It is an atmosphere of intense industry, unflinching resolution and reasoned confidence. The trial is severe, but it is the same as it was 25 years ago for Britain as for Belgium; and for both countries the stake is the same—independence, to bo preserved by one and restored by the other.”