BELGIAN AIRMEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 193, 16 August 1941, Page 8

BELGIAN AIRMEN

CONGO CONTINGENT

TRAINING IN SOUTH AFRICA j'P.A.I WELLINGTON", this day. } The Consul-General for Belgium : in New Zealand has received a cable | message from the Belgian Foreign | Minister. M. Spaak. which states j that the first Belgian contingent of ! candidates for pilots, observers, •radio telegraphists and mechanics ; has arrived in South Africa from the Congo for training.

Field-Marshal Smuts. Prime Minister of South Africa, attended at the Belgian Legation on August G and the candidates were presented to him by the Belgian Minister, M. Moulaert. who expressed thanks to the Government of the Union for having consented to undertake the training of his compatriots. He further affirmed the eagerness of the Congo Air Force to fly side by side with the valiant South African aviators, and spoke in praise of Marshal Smuts, who completelyunderstood the danger of Hitlerism and was resolved to go on fighting until final victorv. M. Moulaert also thanked Marshal Smuts for South Africa's donation of i' 50.000 to the Belgian relief fund.

Marshal Smuts welcomed the Belgian Air Force pupils. He declared that the South African Air Force would be able to show the young colonial aviators how to profit from the experiences recently acquired in Africa. He drew attention to the brilliant victories of the Belgian Congo forces, and to the colony's important economic contribution "to the Allied war effort. He alluded also to the splendid result of the voluntary subscription by the people of the Congo towards the purchase of tighter planes.

At the conclusion Marshal Smuts expressed the hope that the close collaboration now existing between the Congo and South Africa might continue after the war. and voiced a sincere prayer for the sneedv liberation of Belgium and "King Leopold.