Evening star., 1941-07-07

scanty clothing and iron rations.
Is an assured living and the Ger
man people can go on at the pres
ent lean level Indefinitely. AS
many taxicabs were on the streets
when ! left the last week in May
as when I arrived in March, and
that is more significant of the oil
situation than any stitistical sur
vey.
The meat ration of pound
per weed was reduced by 100
grams tabout one-fifth) on the
1st of June. 1t was explained
this was done to conserve
meat animals and the reduction
did not extend to working people
and. of course. not to the army
There was only one outstanding
shortage, leather. No one could
get shoes. and what the German
civilians will do when their fiayed
footwear is gone no one seems to
know. Probably ten million men in
the army are wearing Weighty knee
high boots. which goes long way
toward explaining why mere civil
lians face a bare-footed prospect.
In Belgium I often thought how
good it would be for our people to
visit this war-ridden. famine land
to appreciate their own blessings.
Leopold III. King of the Belgians,
was a prisoner OF war at Laaken in
the summer royal palace and there
l went to see him.
On the palace grounds, between
blooming rhodendron and lilacs,
every available plot of land was
seeded to potatoes in grim fight
against starvation. Down the long
greensward which slopes from the
palace TO the pool. where ancient
beecheS and oaks had seen kings
and princes and dynaSties come and
go, something was missing. l knew
what it Was-the white swans.
Francois told me one day two eagles
had sWooped down on the placid
scene and carried them away, just
as the blitzkrieg had swoped down
IL Jill blhS ShlNN upoIi Ills IlllC
peace-lOvlng country.
I met the King in his study. look
ing we'll and fresh, the only notice.
able change a fringe of gray touch
ing his fair hair about the ears.
His eyes were clear and confident
and he did not look like a man
in grief, although he could not
conceal his deep distress for his
hungering people and the misery
that had come to Belgium with the
coming of the Germans.
A year before We had met in
this same room and had both agreed
that breathing pause had occurred
in the nerve-wrecking tension of
that time A few hours after that
German Stukas were smashing the
Canal Albert.
King Is Prisoner of War.
The King is a prisoner of war
am not free. therefore, to report
our conversation. but I betray no
confidence when 1 say that he told
me he had not one moment of
regret for his action in surrendering
his army. He said. given the same
hopeless outlook, he would do the
same thing over again. He feels
that he has been true to himself
and to his conscience and, there
fore, his is that serenity of spirit
sovereign to any environment. In
his guarded exile he is one of the
freest men in distracted Europe.
with no alien sheltering government
to give him compelling counsel.
He has acquired stature by ad-
versity and. more than ever before.
the afflicted Belgian people accept
his leadership. Although, so long
as the enemy remains in occupa-
ton OF his country, he will see no
one and will have nothing to do
with affairs of government or
politics. His imperturability in CAP
tlvity reminded me of De Valera and
how that great Irishman used to
speak of jails in a friendly hos
pltable vein. as one might speak of
sympathetic hotel.
(Released BY the North American
Newspaper Alliance. IncJ
Panama will penalize government