NEW BELGIAN CABINET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22896, 26 November 1937, Page 10

NEW BELGIAN CABINET

After a species of interregnum lasting over four weeks, a successor has been found for Dr. van Zecland, ami Belgium has a new Cabinet. However fortunate this may be for the country, and however wellequipped for his duties the new Prime Minister may be, those people outside Belgium who follow the course of world affairs will remain more interested in the personality and performances of the man who has thus retired into private life — Dr. van Zecland. In many other countries it has become the practice for Governments and leaders of Governments to surround themselves with experts versed in the mysteries of economics, currency and finance, hoping with such help to find their way out of the maze of difficulties all nations have had to face within the last 10 years. Thus arose the term "brains trust." Dr. van Zeeland was his own brains trust. Before he became Prime Minister he had won for himself a distinguished place as a banker, in the service of the National Bank of his country. That was not the full measure of his achievements, because he had also established a reputation in academic circles as a brilliant economist, having served as a professor at Louvain University, where he had graduated. While there he founded the Institute of Economic Sciences. Dr. van Zceland's expert knowledge has been utilised far beyond the borders of Belgium. Ilis international reputation, and his achievements in devaluing the belga did not save him from political, attacks, which were concentrated on his relations with the National Bank. He fought back stoutly against what he described as a campaign of calumny, but eventually resigned in order, according to his own account, to meet the charges which affected the bank itself. He is temporarily out of public life, but does not seem the type to remain out of it long.