BELGIAN PROBLEMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25055, 20 November 1944, Page 4

BELGIAN PROBLEMS

In novels the chief characters often arrive at the end of their troubles and live happily ever after. In real life people sometimes persuade themselves temporarily that they have reached Happy Valley, only to find that the road does wind uphill all the way—"yes, to the very end." Something like that appears to have been happening to the Belgians. Early in September liberation raised them to a seventh heaven. The day dreamed of for over four years dawned. The hated enemy became the fugitive, the collaborationist was called on for a reckoning, the liberators were feted, the people, freed of shackles, were able to stretch themselves. But the sudden political and social changes could not instantly alter hard economic circumstance. Food, fuel and clothing were short and transport was lacking for the distribution of such stocks as were available. This condition wa; emphasised by the fact that, although Belgian soil was freed, the approaches to the great port of were long held closed by the enemy. So today many Belgians are suffering from an aoute sense of anti-climax. The

measure of the discontent can be taken from the military' support to maintain law and order offered to the Belgian Government by the Supreme Allied Command. The Government has perhaps been at fault in making administrative changes too quickly. It would be natural to wish to destroy the enemy's regime as quickly as possible, but sometimes it was scrapped before the new system was ready to function. And the very fact that M. Pierlot's Government arrived with the Allied Armies encouraged the expectation of a quick return to normal—one that could not be realised, for threads cannot be taken up just where they were snapped, when four years of enemy occupation yawns between. The lesson for others seems to be that the return to peacetime living cannot be accomplished all at once. The transition must be made gradually, making sure of each step before taking the next.