BURGOMASTER MAX

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20319, 30 January 1928, Page 7

BURGOMASTER MAX

FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND. WARTIME BE A VERY RECALLED. (Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, January 28. (Received Jan. 29, at 5.5 p.m.) London yesterday paid homage to Burgomaster Max, whose name is honoured throughout the world. The Lord Mayor and prominent London personages determined that his first visit to England should be celebrated as befits a hero. The visit coincides with subdued rejoicings at Doom in honour of the ex-Kaiser’s sixty-ninth birthday. The burgomaster, while a helpless prisoner in his own town (Brussels), refused to be cowed by the German invaders, and when the Germans were about to enter Brussels he issued a proclamation in which he said: “ So long as I am allowed life and liberty, I shall do all in my power to protect the rights and dignity of my fellow citizens.” He refused to subordinate his office to the orders of the German Governor, and for a month his serene patriotism compelled the invaders to respect him, but eventually he was imprisoned.

Burgomaster Max lunched with the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, and in the evening attended a public dinner, at which Sir George Grahame, British Ambassador at Brussels, presided, having come specially to London for the purpose. He declared that since the stabilisation of the Belgian franc Belgium had made a marvellous recovery.—A. and N.Z. Cable.