DEMAND TO SEE THEIR KING

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20763, 25 June 1937, Page 9

DEMAND TO SEE THEIR KING

EX-SOLDIERS’ BOLD PROTEST OPPOSED TO PARDON FOR WAR TRAITORS DANGEROUS SITUATION IN BELGIUM United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph —Copyright BRUSSELS, June 23. Maintaining their resentment against legislation providing for a pardon for war-time traitors, twenty thousand former soldiers, providing themselves with food and bedding, marched to the copital in order to protest. They assembled at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, broke the police cordon and advanced upon the Houses of Parliament, though Parliament was not sitting and the Prime Minister (M. Paul Van Zeeland) is in America. Mounted and foot police charged and arrested many and injured others. Firemen dispersed the crowds with hoses. A delegation then demanded an audience with King Leopold, to urge withdrawals of the amnesty, the resignation of the Government and the dissolution of Parliament. The disorders continued, and severe street fighting necessitated further police charges in order to disperse the demonstrators in front of the Government Buildings and the Royal Palace. Troops have now been despatched to the scene of the disturbances. Calmer Counsels Prevail Calmer counsels prevailing, the delegation seated Itself on the pavement to await the return of King Leopold from the country. The King eventually promised its members that he would do everything it was possible of a constitutional monarch to do. An incident in the demonstration was 100 ex-servicemen lying down in the footpath in parallel lines that extended across the road from the Palace gates to the park entrance, blocking all traffic. Later messages report that the disorders are over. Extra police are guarding the city. Protest Made in Senate On June 9, armoured cars and police were sent to the scene when three hundred former servicemen, who are members of the Croix de Feu, marched past the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and flung their medals on the grave. Their action was a protest against a Bill passed in the Chamber of Deputies, pardoning wartime traitors who attempted, with German help to create an independent state. The demonstrators were eventually admitted to the Senate and allowed to protest against the passage of the Bill, after which they returned to the tomb and swore in French and Flemish to shoot the traitors if the Bill was passed.