THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 305, 14 May 1941, Page 6

THE EMPIRE'S WAR ACTIVITIES

j AFTER 25 YEARS j "LIBRE BELIQUE" REAPPEARS ! i I | The story of the secret publication in Belgium during tlie last Avar of the newspaper, "La Libre Bel- ; ique, " reads like a thriller. The | German authorities were never able | to prevent the 1 punctual appearance ! of the valiant little paper which | galvanised the energies of the Beli gians in thqir silent struggle, against | the Kaiser and, his invading hordes. 4 ' i They had, however, set numerous I /.pies 011 the heels of those a\lio so J daringly challenged the German military machine. The Governor-General, Baron von Bissing, daily found a copy of "La Libre Belique" on his desk. • Miany Belgian patriots paid dearly for their bravery. The risks run by those involved in so dangerous an enterprise wcr'j considerable. printers—of whom there were many ■ —were constantly in the greatest danger. B3 r a tragic ooincidenca, on May 10, 1940, when the Germans bombarded Brussels witho-ut a declaration of Avar, the first bomb to fall on the oity killed one of the last surviving printers, with his two sons. Thus, by the irony of rate, the Germans had their revenge after 25 years. v , To-day a iioav "Libre Belique" has appeared in Brussels to carry on the tradition of a people who will never submit.