Evening star., 1950-07-30
The Crisis in Belgium

The ear-lnSurrectionary conditions prevail
ing in Belgium today would be bad at any time.
But they are particularly grave in this uniquely
critical period when any such development is
bound to be harmful to Western Europe and the
free world as whole Quite obviously the Com
munists will exploit it to the full in a manner
calculated to be as helpful as possible to the
Kremln
What has set off this explosion-the strikes,
the sabotage, the riotous street conditions, and
the general atmosphere of incipient national
rebellon-is King Leopolds recent return to the
throne, despite a 1945 parliamentary act barring
his restoration. The wisdom and justice of that
act-based primarily on widespread resentment
over his surrender to the Nazis and his failure
to join the wartime Belgian government in
London-are still highly debatable, but current
events leave little room for doubt that it reflected
and continues to reflect, the will of very large
segment of the population, notably the French
speaking Walloons.
The party responsible for restoring Leopold
is the predominanty Catholic Social Christian
Party, which is representative chiefly of the
Flemsh-speaking BelgianS in Flanders. Having
won a razor-thin majority in Parliament in the
general election last June, the Social Christians
who incidentally received only 46.7 per cent of
the popular vote-grasped the nettle about
act of 1s45. They did this, however, by them
selves, with all the other major parties, after
bitterly 1libustering against the measure, absent
ing themselves from the chamber and solemnly
warning of the consequences that would ensue.
Considered against this background with
Belgian public opinion sharply divided on the
issue, Leopolds return seems definitely to have
been an act of poor judgment carried out against
plain evidence that the restoration, far from
serving as a unifying influence, would in all
probability be an incitement to disunity. To
that extent, therefore, the King and the Social
Christian Party are open to blame for having
turned a deaf ear to the opposition-Whch
except for the Communists, has been anxious
to retain the crown-when it urged that the
issue be settled by abdcation in favor of Leo
pold's son, Prince Baudouin.
To say this however, is not to absolve the
opposition principally the Socialists-of
the grave responsibility they have assumed in
unleashing what is now happening in Belgium.
Leaving aside the Communists, those parties are
devoted to the principles of democratic freedom,
but by their present action-which is threaten
ing to reduce the country to a state OF wild
disorder-they striking hard blow against
representative government and playing right into
the hands of the Red totalitarians Somehow,
without delay discipline must be restored to the
country and the royal issue setrfed IN an atmos-
phere of reason and national calm.
otherwise, needless to say, Belgium is likely
to pay heavy price for its partisan excesses
Beyond that, since the country figures largely
in the effort to build up Western Europe's
strength, and since it is member of the Atlantic
Pact, it cannot continue on its present course
without doing injury to the free world at large.
Only the Kremlin can gain from situation of
this sort.