PREMIER'S SPEECH RECALLED

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 41, 16 August 1941, Page 9

PREMIER'S SPEECH RECALLED

! Commenting upon the announcement !of official Belgian satisfaction with the i Roosevelt-Churchill declaration, M. A. Nihotte, Consul in New Zealand for Belgium, recalled that in a recent speech the Belgian Prime Minister, M. Pierlot, stated:— "Belgium knows Great Britain. She also knows Germany. British supremacy has never constituted a danger for us. We see in its maintenance a safei guard for our country, whether it is a question of the homeland or our overseas possessions. . In the short space of [ one man's life Belgium has seen two German invasions. Our great concern is that our children may not see the same catastrophe x*epeated a third time. [Belgium's only security lies in the destruction of the political and military power of Germany. I say 'of Ger!many' and not simply of the Nazi reg"'me. The first Reich committed the crime of 1914. The Second prepared the way for what it called 'revenge.' The Third Reich has repeated the offence. Experience shows that under different regimes the same spirit of aggression still inspires German policy. Against this danger it becomes indispensable to organise a system of guarantees which shall be real and lasting."