KING LEOPOLD

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1944, Page 5

KING LEOPOLD

TO RETURN TO BELGIUM. NATIONAL PARLIAMENT REOPENS'. LONDON, September 19. King Leopold of,Belgium is to return to the ‘ Throne. On Tuesday the Belgian Parliament opened a session in Brussels, and the Prime Minister, M. Hubert Pierlot, declared: “We are looking forward to welcoming nome political prisoners, the King and the Princes. As Chief of State, King Leopold will resume and exercise his constitutional prerogatives and the monarchy will remain.” M. Pierlot opened the session with tears in his eyes, standing silent for a moment or two before speaking. He reported to the House on the activities of the Government during its four years of exile. He revealed that the Government had entered into contracts for three million tons of food for the first six months after Belgium’s liberation. The supplies would be delivered as soon as shipping was avaialable. U.N.R.R.A. would provide one hundred million sterling worth of food and other supplies for the same period. The Belgian Foreign Office had studied means of synchronising Belgian reconstruction with that of France. A British United Press correspondent says: “This was the first freelyelected Parliament in Europe to reconvene after four years and pick up the threads of democratic government and start the country back on the road to recovery. The magnificent Palais de La Nation was crowded out, but on the floor in the Chamber there were many vacant seats, many deputies and senators being missing, either dead or in Nazi concentration camps. British and American representatives were in the foreign diplomats’ gallery.” GREEK GOVERNMENT. CAIRO, September 19. A representative of the Greek Government, has left for Greece. The Prime Minister, M. Papandreu, sent a message to Greeks from Italy: “Your hour has come.”