AFTER 25 YEARS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20547, 6 May 1941, Page 7

AFTER 25 YEARS

“LIBRE BELGIQUE” PAPER REAPPEARS The story of the secret ‘publication in Belgium during the last war of the newspaper, La Libre Belgique, reads like a thriller. The German authorities were never able to prevent the punctual appearance of the valiant iittle paper which galvanised the energies of the Belgians in their silent struggle against the Kaiser and his invading hordes. They had, however, set numerous spies on the heels of those who so daringly challenged the German military machine. The Governor-General, Baron von Bissing, daily found a copy of La Libre Belgique on his desk. Many Belgian patriots paid dearly for their bravery. The risks run by those involved in so dangerous an enterprise were considerable. The printers—of whom there were many—were constantly in the greatest danger. By a tragic coincidence, on May 10, 1040, when the Germans bombarded Brussels without a declaration of war, the first bomb to fall on the city killed one of the last surviving printers, with his two sons. Thus, by the irony of fate, the Germans had their revenge after 25 years. To-day a new Libre Belgique has appeared in Brussels to carry on the tradition of a people who will never submit.