NEW FACTS REVEALED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26982, 18 January 1949, Page 5

NEW FACTS REVEALED

ACTIONS OF KING LEOPOLD

SURRENDER TO GERMANS

NZPA—Copyright

BRUSSELS. Jan. 16. A message from Mr Churchill urging King Leopold of Belgium to come to England with his family after the German break-through in May, 1940, never reached him, according to documents published to-day in the Catholic newspaper. La Libre Belgique. A report on the message was contained in a 40-page letter, which the paper said was sent on June 16, 1940, by the late Admiral Lord Keyes, then British liaison officer with the Belgian General Staff, to Lord Gort, former commander of the British Expeditionary Force. The paper said the letter had bqeri kept secret until its present publication. Mr Churchill asked Lord Keyes to do all in his power to persuade King Leopold to make for England, but Lord Keyes did not receive the message until he had been back in England for several days. When I saw the Prime Minister and Cabinet immediately after my return to London there was no question of blaming King Leopold for having laid down his arms,” Lord Keyes wrote. “ How can one blame him, since the last message from the Prime Minister that King Leopold should have received 36 hours before taking his decision stated clearly that we were on the point of abandoning the Belgians? King Leopold ordered hitarmy to hold the line on the River Lys until the last man. Orders were given to the artillery to stand by the guns until their ammunition was exhausted or until their guns were silenced. ‘‘There is no doubt that from the time it became evident that the BEE had no intention of coming to the aid of the Belgian army the latter lost courage. It seems to me damnably unfair to throw all the blame on the Belgians and to try to make their King a French and British scapegoat.”