CONGOLESE ATTACKED

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29264, 23 July 1960, Page 13

CONGOLESE ATTACKED

Belgian King’s Speech (Rec. 10 p.m.) BRUSSELS, July 22. King Baudouin last night accused the Congolese Government of having deliberately attempted to raise the Congolese against the Belgians in the Congo. “A movement of a horrible cruelty unleashed itself- in the Congo Force Fublique, and the responsible authorities, far from fighting, attempted to raise the Congolese people against the Belgians," the King Said in a speech broadcast over the Belgian Radio. King Baudouin called it “a sacred duty" for Belgian troops to intervene to save threatened lives.

In a most unusual speech for a Belgian King, he rejected with indignation the Soviet accusations against Belgium He said: “How shall 1 tell you. my dear compatriots, the indignation I felt, when, adding. to the painful trials that Belgians were submitted to in the Congo, voices dared raise themselves to accuse Belgium of aggression, and attributed to Belgium with cynicism the intention to threaten the country Belgium had just called to independence." ■ ' J He added: ‘‘Belgium had hoped that the Congo people would be able to govern- themselves and it would have been so if those in whose hands we had left them had loyally accepted the generous aid we offered them. It has ’infortunately not been So.”