MARCH ON BRUSSELS PLANNED
The Ministry of the Interior announced earlier that the march on Brussels has been banned,, and that it would be met by force if it took place.
The ministry also made public an extraordinary decree banning all motor vehicles from entering Greater Brussels. The decree stated that the new regulation would be enforced by the Army, the State Police and the local police forces. From now, the Ministry stated, all vehicles coming into Brussels would be checked. Road blocks were being established on every road leading into the city, and if drivers were suspected of being anti-Leopold demonstrators they would be turned back. Groups massed against the King were told to mark time to-day because every man would be needed on Tuesday when a march on Brussels would be attempted. Fleets of buses have been chartered to take anti-Leopold demonstrators to the suburbs of Brussels. If there is no opposition from troops, thousands of strikers will begin pouring into Brussels.
In a bid to end the strikes and riots, King Leopold invited the leaders of the main Belgian political parties to the Royal Palace at Laekan, but the Socialist leader, Mr PaulHenri Spaak, refused the invitation. The King talked with Liberal members of the Crown Council, the president of the Catholic Unions, the Defence Minister (Mr Henri Moreau de Melen), and the Minister of State (Mr Henri Heyman). Meanwhile. anti-Rpyalist leaders throughout Southern Belgium were busy preparing for Tuesday's march on the capital. Among the masked columns will be many of Belgium’s 160,000 mjnerg. as well as steelworkers and factory hands. The miner# may bring improvised weapons in case they have to fight their way through to their goal. “Radio Truth." a clandestine station, has been broadcasting appeals to all strikers in the bitterly anti-Koyalist Walloon provinces not to fail in their duty on Tuesday. This station frequently transmits coded instructions to the strike leaders.
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Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26179, 1 August 1950, Page 7
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319MARCH ON BRUSSELS PLANNED Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26179, 1 August 1950, Page 7
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