BELGIAN KING

Grey River Argus, 27 March 1943, Page 1

BELGIAN KING

Protests to Hitler AGAINST DEPORTATIONS. (Rec. 8.40.) LONDON, March 25. King Leopold of Belgium has protested to Hitler against the deportation of Belgian workers to Germany. The latest issue of a clandestine newspaper “La Libre Belgique,” to reach London publishes a letter from King Leopold, written at the Castle Leaken, where the King is interned. It is addressed to M. Nolf, President of the Belgian Red' Cross. It says: “Our country is undergoing a new, cruel order of forced labour, which compels our workers to leave Belgium. The fate of the women is particularly pitiful. Young girls are sent to foreign lands, where they do not know the language, and They are exposed to dangers, among which those of a moral nature are not the least. ' “I have approached the Chancellor of the Reich, and have informed him of the profound concern which mass deportations are causing to all classes of our population, which has not forgotten the labour camps of 19141918, and 1 have urged him to withdraw these measures, which strike unjustly at a people who have nothing with which to reproach themselves. I have received a reply that the necessity of war prevents Germany from stopping the deportations. I have had no option but to take note of this refusal.”