ANGLO-BELGIAN TALKS

Southland Times, Issue 23142, 8 March 1937, Page 7

ANGLO-BELGIAN TALKS

DELICATE SITUATION GERMAN THREAT MAY CAUSE DIPLOMATIC RIFT (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Received March 7, 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 6. Conversations are proceeding through diplomatic channels between London and Brussels over the delicate situation arising in connection with Belgian neutrality. It is feared that with the receding chances of a Western European pact Herr Hitler’s promise to respect Belgium’s territorial integrity may divorce Belgium from Britain and France. The Belgian Prime Minister (Dr Paul van Zeeland) is anxious to maintain the Anglo-French-Belfeian front, but pressure by the pro-Fascist Rexists, led by M. Leon Degrelle, complicates the situation, a solution of which the British and Belgian governments are endeavouring to reach. The Brussels correspondent of The Times says that public opinion in Belgium is becoming increasingly apprehensive lest the diplomatic stalemate in Western Europe furnishes Herr Hitler with a pretext for a new manoeuvre, making Belgium’s position even more difficult than it has been since the violation of the Locarno Pact by Germany. On October 15 King Leopold announced Belgium’s intention of pursuing a neutral policy. The diplomatic correspondent of The Daily Telegraph said then that the future of Belgium in a new European system had been under examination in London recently. It was held that should Germany attempt expansion it would be eastwards; her concern in the west would be to hold off an attack from France going to help Poland or Czechoslovakia. The observation of neutrality by Belgium would lighten the German task. German opinion welcomed King Leopold’s speech as an indication of the inexpediency of the Franco-Soviet Pact. The Manchester Guardian said that Belgian neutrality would not necessarily prevent a new Western European pact, for the other four Powers might agree to guarantee her neutrality without asking for reciprocal guarantees, as was the case before 1914. It would, however, prevent the suggested pact between France, Britain and Belgium from coming into force if the negotiations failed. France shortly afterwards decided to extend the Maginot Line of forts along the Belgian frontier to the North Sea.