SIR ROGER KEYES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24634, 16 June 1941, Page 6

SIR ROGER KEYES

AN ACTION FOR LIBEL r" -' ■■■" -■■' '■■ ] : ■ . : , ' CLAIM AGAINST PAPER ECHO OF BELGIUM'S FALL LONDON, June 13. . What .is believed to be the inside story of the seven tragic days< leadinc to the surrender of King Leopold was told when the settlement was announced in the law courts of a libel action brought by Sir Roger Keyes against-the Daily Mirror Newspapers. Ltd. '

Sir Patrick Hastings, K.C., who appeared for Sir Roger Keyes, said thai within a few hours of the German invasion of Belgium on May- 10, 1940, Sir Roger Keyes, at the request of the British Government, flew to join King Leopold as special liaison officer, and remained until'May 27, when King Leopold asked for an armistice. Mr Churchill, on May 28, announcing the surrender, asked for judgment to be suspended until the facts were known Sir Roger Keyes, in the lobby of the House of Commons, echoed the advice, and the Mirror, on May 30, published an attack against King Leopold and Sir Roger Keyes. Sir Patrick Hastings described how the British Army and the 'French Northern Army were ordered on May 20 to prepare to fight south-west to re-, gain contact with the main French Army. It was clear that, unless the. Belgian Army could conform with this movement it "would breach the contact between the British and ..-Belgian armies. King Leopold informed the British Government that the Belgian Army had neither tanks nor aircraft and existed solely for (defence;. "King Leopold did not feel he had any right to expect the British Government to jeopardise the existence of the British Army in order to keep contact with, the Belgian Army, but wished to make it clear that if-there was a separation between the two armies the capitulation of theßelgian Army would be inevitable. .

Belgian Army's Withdrawal

: The Belgian Army, at the request of the French High Command, was with-drawn;-oh May 23, from a prepared, 'position on the Scheldt 'to a weaker and longer line on the Lys to allow the British Army to retire«bohind the defensive frontier line and to prepare for the southward offensive. Fighting on the Belgian front had been ■continuous for, four days. The Belgian Army, by May 27, was running short of■ food and ammunition, being 'attacked by at least eight divisions, including armoured ones and waves of dive-bombers. .

King Leopold asked Sir Roger Keyes to inform the British authorities that he would be obliged to surrender before a debacle occurred. The German Army, by the afternoon, had. driven a wedge between the Belgian 'and British atrmies, and every road, village, arid town in the sn.all part of Belgium left in Belgian hands was thronged with hundreds of thousands of refugees, and men, women, and children were being, mercilessly bombed and machine-gunned. In these circumstances, at 5 p.m. on May 27. King Leopold informted the British and French authorities that he intended at midnight to ask for an armistice, in order to avoid further slaughter of his people.- .Sir Patrick Hastings concluded that Sir Roger Keyes, in the light of his knowledge, felt justified in suggesting suspension of judgment on King Leopold and resented the attack on himself. •:..',. -,.■:■.'..;'. . .

The defendants accepted Sir Patrick Hastings's statement and regretted that they had been misled by an unimpeach'able source.

The judge ordered the defendants to pay damages of an -amount- which; was n»t stated, as wellias costs i^Mr