WHY BELGIUM FIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 32, 7 February 1941, Page 6

WHY BELGIUM FIGHTS

M. SPAAK'S REVIEW

FACTS OF SURRENDER

THE KING'S ACTION

Belgians are in the best position to discuss the attitude of their King and their people in the past and in the future. M. Paul Henri Spaak, the Belgian Foreign Minister, in an interview with T. A. Raman, the noted Indian journalist, dealt with these matters. When King Leopold surrendered, the Belgian Prime Minister (M. Pierlot) and M. Spaak went south to Vichy, and when France capitulated they crossed | into Spain. After many delays they managed to elude their guards and to leave Spain for Britain under a disguise. "Today the position is quit? clear," M. Spaak told Mr. Raman. "Ali that remains of legal and free Belgium, all that is entitled to speak in her name is in London. Only the victory of. the Allies will restore independence to my country and freedom to my King and compatriots." KING LEOPOLD'S SURRENDER. "We have never admitted," said M. Spaak, "and never will admit, the charge of treachery against the King which Mf Reynaud made. "The King was commander-in-chief of the Belgian army. On May. 27 the position was as follows:—The French had been crushingly defeated at Sedan. The Belgian front was being hammered by the German air force, against which it was defenceless. The work of destruction was being completed by German armoured units. The line was broken in numerous places. There were no reserves. All available men had been thrown in five days before. Munitions were running short. The King had some days before told both the British and French commands that he might be compelled to capitulate. And so he took this decision, in order to avoid the wasteful, purposeless suicide of thousands of his men. "The moment he had made his decision, he telephoned the French G.H.Q. He tried to communicate likewise with the British command. This was impossible. The lines had been cut. So he sent a special courier, but.he arrived several hours late. "King Leopold could indeed have gone to France, but he thought it would be the better and the nobler thing to surrender with his men, asking for no special terms for himself. "That is the whale story," summed up M. Spaak. "4Pb" he added slowly, "that action had, I believe, at the time, the approval of the great majority of Belgians still in the country." THE KING A PRISONER. Referring to reports of a meeting between Leopold and Hitler, M. Spaak said: —' "Since his surrender, King Leopold has been a prisoner in a castle in | Belgium. He has considered himself just a prisoner of war and has not acted politically. His presence in Belgium has not so far hindered the legal Government now.in London in any way. "Rather has the knowledge that their King is a prisoner in his own country helped the people to oppose German schemes and plans for Belgium. We have no information confirming these reports of the King's meeting with Hitler, and I consider them extremely unlikely to be true. "It is true that Hitler can compel the King to meet him. But constitutionally the King has no title to negotiate on behalf of his country without the approval of his Government, and any arrangement or agreement which may be forced on King Leopold, prisoner of war, would not bind Belgium legally nor affect in any way the inflexible determination of the Government to carry on the struggle to the end. "Our cause is now indissolubly one with Britain's. And to Britain's .great and growing strength, Belgium adds her contribution modestly but without reserve. Today we are re-organis-ing a small army here. We are calling up all Belgians abroad to join it, We have an air force already playing its part. Belgian airmen have been killed in action over Britain. The great natural resources of the Belgian Congo are entirely at the service of the Allied cause. So, too, is our considerable merchant shipping." BRITISH TRIUMPH NECESSARY. Mr. Raman asked the Belgian Foreign' Minister if he saw any possibility of a negotiated peace. , "No," he replied. "It Has been demonstrated that there is no limit to German aggression and ambition. Not Europe only, but other Continents as well would be reduced to slavery were the Nazis to conquer. All humanity will be bond slaves to the master German nation. "This war is not one between Britain and Germany for political power. It is a conflict between two conceptions of life and civilisation: between liberty and oppression, humanity and racialism, individual freedom and State-worship. "I hoped for long that the war would not so develop into a struggle for elementary human rights. Speaking for a Government which tried hard to avoid such a development, I say firmly that there is no room in the world for both civilisation and the Nazi conception of domination. One must die. No success seems ever to satiate the Nazis, no compromise to satisfy their lust for domination, no promise to bind them. "Britain will have to triumph over them so that nations may return to a moral and peaceful existence." NAZI NEW ORDER A FRAUD. M. Spaak commented on the socalled Nazi "New Order." "No one has yet told me of what (his 'new order' consists. I only see that it varies remarkably with the political needs of the Reich from day to day. "One moment it radiates comradeship with Soviet Russia But presently it takes on the appearance of an entente against the Soviet menace. Then again it strides Europe and Asia in a fervour of regeneration, seeking to look like a sanctified partnership between catholic France, Italj*, and Spain under the aegis of the not-so-catholic Germany.

"Even for the Nazis this is a very hollow propaganda stunt. There cannot be any reorganisation of Europe as long as down-trodden millions pray and plan for deliverance from the oppressor. Only the victory of the forces of freedom will prepare the ground for a sane and moral international society.

"All the evidence I have proves that the Belgian people are daily more confident of British victory. Resentment against the occupation intensifies every day. The steadily increasing severity of German regulations is the best measure of. the mood of the people. Our faith in ultimate victory is passionate and our confidence unshakeable."

"First," he said, "there is the wonderful spirit, unity, and intensity of British resistance. To one who went

through all the confusion and degradation of the last months on the Continent, this morale and unity is life giving breath.

"Secondly the productive force of Britain and the Empire is rising steadily and fast, and in a 'total' war, Germany, with all her slave- states, will not be able to maintain her. present advantages. In a not too distant future the Allies will out-match Germany in morale, man-power, and equipment.

"Thirdly, the great aid of the U.S.A. is becoming more and more effective. The fighting in Greece and episodes like Taranto proved that the Allies do not lack initiative or audacity.

"On these grounds," concluded M. Spaak, "and because of the basic fact which the Nazis discount, that the spirit of man revolts against their doctrines and methods, one cannot doub' our ultimate victory. '*