PARLIAMENT OF BELGIUM

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24368, 21 September 1944, Page 3

PARLIAMENT OF BELGIUM

SESSION OPENED IN BRUSSELS “KING WILL RESUME PREROGATIVES ” (Rec. 8 p.m.) , . IXJNDONi Sept. 19. “With tears in his eyes, M. Hubert Pierlot. Prime Minister of Belgium, since before the country was occupied in 1940, opened the first session of the Belgian Parliament in liberated Brussels to-day.” says the , British United Press correspondent in Brussels. “It is the first freely elected Parliament in Europe to be convened agam after four years, to pick up the threads of democratic government and start the country back on the road to recovery. ' ' • "The magnificent Palais .de ’la Nation was crowded’out, but on the floor in the Chamber were many vacapt seats. Many deputies and senators were missing-—either dead or in Nazi concentration camps. British and American representatives were in the foreign diplomats’ gallery. “M. Pierlot stood silent, tears in his eyes, for a moment or two before i speaking. Then he reported' to ..the House, on the activities of the Governmenf during its four years of exile. . “In spite of reports of the unpopularity of King Leopold, it is-settled that be shall-return to the throne; M. Pierlot declared; ‘We- are looking forward to welcoming Home the political ■ prisoners, our King and the Royal Family.’ “M. Pierlot added that as Chief of the State King Ldbpold would resume and exercise his constitutional prerogatives, and the Monarchy would remain. "M. Pierlot revealed that the Government had entered into contracts for 3,000,000 torts of food supplies for the first six months after Belgium’s liberation. The supplies would be delivered as soon as shipping was available. UNRRA would provide £100,000,000 worth of food and other supplies in the same period. “The Belgian Foreign Office, said M. Pierlot, had studied means of synchronising Belgian reconstruction with that of France.”