THE OUTLOOK IN BELGIUM

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1913, Page 17

THE OUTLOOK IN BELGIUM

Without wishing to be an alarmist or a pessimist I cannot conceal that the outlook in Belgium just at present is far from bright (writes a correspondent of the Universe). Threatening clouds hang over both the internal and the international situation of this country. Since the dark days of 1870, during the Franco-Prus-sian war, Belgium has never found itself in so critical a position. The country is threatened with a general strike on April 15 if the Government does not yield on the question of the revision of the Constitution and give manhood suffrage, with one man one vote. But such a strike has been too long predicted and too often put off to be now successful, it was promised us after the general elections of last June, if the Catholics kept their small majority. They not only maintained but greatly increased that majority. The strike was then adjourned by the Socialist leaders until the-Government should reject a motion asking the Chamber to take into consideration a revision of the Constitution, in the sense of manhood suffrage. This motion the Government firmly opposed; not that it is entirely opposed, nor its supporters either, to a measure of electoral reform in the direction of manhood and even of female suffrage. But the Premier, M. de Broqueville, rightly refused to revise under the Socialist threat of a general strike. The Chamber rejected the motion by a large majority. The Socialists thereupon have promised us the general strike for mid- April. Will they be able to keep their promise and inflict on the country a terrible blow to its present prosperous commercial and industrial condition ? I think not. One fact that militates against the success of a strike is that the Belgian Government railways —that is to say, the railways of nearly the whole country—have a stock of coal in reserve that would enable them to work during four weeks without being replenished. Further supplies have been ordered from England, and if all the Belgian mines were closed down the railways could still draw supplies from England and Germany, unless we suppose that German and English miners mean to have a sympathetic strike, in order that their Belgian brethren, many of whom have, as things are, a triple Parliamentary vote, should obtain a single vote apiece ! There is another factor that happily tells against the chances of there being a general strike— attitude of the Catholic Workmen’s Syndicates. The exact number of their members is not known, but it has been put at two hundred thousand. Be this as it may, the Catholic Syndicate of Brussels has issued a manifesto declaring itself against a strike in favor of manhood suffragea purely political question. It speaks in the name of eighty-five thousand Catholic workmen. I think that between now and the date fixed for the strike the Socialist leaders will find some excuse to adjourn it sine die. Meanwhile the debate in the Chamber on the Government’s Military Bill languishes, since all that was worth saying about it has been said by the first few speakers in the debate. The public is quite indifferent to what the orators have to say. It knows the Bill, and the plans of the Government, sees their need, and vf it does not like the dose, swallows it patriotically.

M. de Broqueville has given his assurance that the international situation is such that Belgium must have for its defence six divisions of infantry of six regiments of four battalions each, with their proper complement of artillery, and special corps, and a division of six regiments of cavalry—this force to be held ready to mobilise in three or four hours; that it needs an -army for field operations in war of 175,000 men, and a total force in war-time of 360,000 men for field and fortress duties combined, and that to this end military service must be generalised. The country, the Socialists excepted, is ready to accept the Government’s demands. Even the anti-militarists among international Socialists excepted —are ready ,to accept the fresh burdens, in men and money, which the Military Bill will impose. Happily, the country is rich in both money and men.