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Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 8

Out of the blue has come one of those individual actions, apparently small in themselves, that may make history. In Belgium, "the cockpit of Europe," M. Leon Degrelle, leader of the Rex (formerly Christus Rex) Party, has already impressed himself on the Belgians by means that recall those of the earlier Hitler. An audacious opportunist, he has now created a vacancy in the Belgian Chamber by ordering a Rexist deputy to resign, and has drawn the Prime Minister (M. Van Zeeland) into a personal duel 'with him (Degrelle) for the vacated seat. This would seem to be a tremendous stroke of Rexist business. If M. Degrelle is defeated, he will at any rate have received a tremendous advertisement (worthy of the genius of Dr. Goebbels) in an election posed not only before the whole of Belgium but before the whole world; he may be beaten, but he can hardly be repressed, much less suppressed. But if the Prime Minister is defeated, the Government will receive a tremendous blow in power and prestige. After recent referendum and polling experience, popular "psychology" emerges more than ever as a :puzzle; yet the Belgian, Prime Minister is accepting a duel in an electorate selected by'| M. Degrelle, with the certainty that Rexism will claim to possess an unlimited "mandate" should its hero, in the course of his Hitler-like march, win this snatched vote. Can anyone imagine Herir Hitler (or M. Degrelle, if he becomes another such) staking the political fate of his Government on an unfettered vote in an electorate chosen by his challenger? This Brussels by-election could make history because the t fate of Europe may turn on France and the , Franco-Soviet Pact; because Belgium , during the last twelve months has < turned away from both, leaving the . revision of Locarno more or less in , the air; and because the Rexist ] Party's agitation is regarded as having influenced Belgium's turn-away. , A turn-away from France (because , of the Russian Pact, Communism, , and the militarised Rhineland) is riot ( necessarily a turn towards Germany; : in this respect, the Belgian Govern- ( ment, while pressing for a revision . of Locarno arrangements, has been ( circumspect. But it is alleged in the t Press that M. Degrelle is not only t Hitler-like and Mussolini-like in his attitudes but is actually receiving (or !iis organisation is receiving) German monetary help. In the last issue of "Current History" it is stated that, following the Belgian elections in May last year, 1 Degrelle, if poor in scruples, was rich in funds and enjoyed financial l support from Germany as well as the t assistance of Nazi agents in Belgium, f However, he made two slips: Hi's Sep- c tember 27 visit to Berlin was'revealed just before the attempted coup; and s the alliance he concluded with the pro- ) German Flemish separatists seemed .to g loyal Belgians strangely • inconsistent j with his nationalist professions. At .. the moment, he is at a discount; but 1 tiis Fascism is still a force to be c reckoned with in Belgian politics.

Even a man at a discount might recover a lot of lost ground by a dramatic by-election duel. "The attempted coup" was "the Rexist march on Brussels on October 25" (recalling Mussolini) followed by the arrest of M. Degrelle (recalling the earlier Hitler).

In the May elections 21 seats in the Belgian Chamber were secured by Rexi'sts, but the statement is qualified by the fact that their solidarity, like M. Degrelle's mana, has from time to time waxed and waned, and most of them supported the Van Zeeland Government's military, programme designed to suit the new political bearings of Belgium with other Powers. Rexism, in fact, can become anything or nothing; but there was a period when that could have been said of Hitlerism. Mussolini's "live dangerously" has been a spur to adventurers in 'the political field as in other fields. Like Belgium, Switzerland is ' another historical neutral who today has a delicate problem to face as between France and the new Germany; but so far Switzerland has not a Degrelle. The clanger of Degrelles, in Belgium or anywhere else, is that they fit into the conception and pattern of the Holy War which Continental forces are trying to impose upon Europe—a Holy War conception the dangers of which have been emphasised by Messrs. Baldwin and Eden. The idea of a semi-religious struggle between Communism and Fascism is applicable to Spain only in parts, yet Fascist and Communist Powers have endeavoured to stage their Holy War in unfortunate Spain. It would become easier to fit Belgium into the Holy War pattern if M. Degrelle by a snatch vote humbled the Belgium Premier, yet Belgium and Switzerland are not interested in the Holy War, but in keeping away from it. Years have passed since the Great War found France and Belgium on the same side, and today the French Communists and the Soviet Pact are part of M. Degrelle's nation-splitting ammunition. His career is almost as much an anxiety ,to M. Blum a3 to M. Van Zeeland, and his latest exploit is as daring as it is dangerous.