RIOTING IN BELGIUM

Evening Star, Issue 22683, 24 June 1937, Page 11

RIOTING IN BELGIUM

EX-SOLDIERS' DEMONSTRATION PROTEST AGAINST AMNESTY LEGISLATION Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright BRUSSELS, June 23. (Received June 24, at 11 a.m.) Maintaining their resentment against the amnesty legislation, 20,000 former soldiers, providing themselves with food and bedding, marched to the capital in order to protest. They assembled at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, broke the police cordon, and advanced upon the Houses of Parliament, though Parliament was not. sitting, and the Prime Minister (Mr Van Zeeland) is in America. Mounted and foot police charged and arrested many persons. Others were injured. Firemen dispersed the crowds with hoses. A delegation then demanded an audience with King Leopold to urge the withdrawal of the amnesty, the resignation of the Government, and the dissolution of Parliament. The disorders continued, and severe street fighting necessitated further police charges in order to disperse the demonstrators in front of the Government Buildings and the Royal Palace. Troops have now been despatched to the scene of the disturbances. CALMER COUNSELS PREVAIL INTERVIEW WITH KING. BRUSSELS, June 23. (Received June 24, at 1.5 p.m.) Calmer counsels prevailing, the delegation seated itself on the pavement to await the return of King Leopold from the country. He eventually promised its members that he would do everything it was possible for a constitutional monarch to do. An incident in the demonstration was 100 ex-servicemen lying down on the footpath in parallel lines that extended across the road from the palace gates to the park entrance, blocking all traffic. [A message from Brussels on June 9 read;—Armoured cars and police rushed to the scene when 30 Croix de Feu ex-servicemen marched past the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and flung their medals on the grave as a protest against the Bill passed in the Chamber, of Deputies and now before the Senate pardoning war-time traitors who attempted, with German help, to create an independent State. The ex-service-men were eventually admitted to the Senate and allowed to protest against the passage of the Bill, after which they returned to the tomb and swore in French and Flemish to shoot the traitors if the Bill was passed.]