NEWS FROM BELGI^UM AND THE BELGIAN CONGO

BELGIAN INFORMATION CENTER 6 3 0 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YO,R.K. N. Y. CIRCLE 6 2450

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On Daydreams and Democracy

We are entitled to our dreams: to those Those who have no daydreams or who which come by night and so smoothly efface gave them up, get drunk: on words, on the boundaries between reality and phan• rhythm, on work, on drink. Drinking is the tasy, freeing us from the limitations of the easiest way of shedding the thousand shack' outside world, which are apt in the long les that bind us to our duties, our sorrowi run to kill our energies and depress our and the manifold other forms of our medi• spirit. We are told that the longest dream ocrity. A wise man never blames a drunk• lasts only from two to three minutes, but ard. He almost never blames anybody 6ul in that short time we can go through a hun• himself. Moralists strafe hepcats for their dred adventures until fear or an overbur• rhythmic orgies and predict the downfaU dening joy awakes us. At least when sleep• of our civilization if Frank Sinatra is allovcr ing we live "dangerously." But we also de• ed to go on cooing to lovelorn youngsters. serve our daydreams. They are a safety valve Why shouldn't these young people think and a consolation. The tired executive in that the world is just romance and moon• his office, with the rain streaming down his shine? Who would have the heart to deprive windowpanes, talks about sunshine and them of that vigorous and grave exercise palms. The traveler in his hotel room — it they call rug-cutting, if that is the only way hasn't been "made" yet on account of the they have of escaping boredom and a feel• personnel shortage — alone with his pipe ing of uselessness which is the greatest men and a dirty Gideon bible, longs for his fire• ace of youth? place at home. The intellectual fighting We have our individual dreams, but wt against an unending avalanche of books also have our dreams in common. We dream says, "I'll take to the woods," and the farm• as Joe Doaks, but we also dream by con• er's daughter wants to see Broadway. tagion, as citizens; we have our national and VOL. IV, No. 5 FEBRUARY 5, 1S44 NEWS FROM BELGhUM AND THE BELGIAN CONGO

BELGIAN INFORMATION CENTER 6 3 0 FIFTH AVENUE. NEW YO,R,K, N. Y. CIRCLE 6 2450

All mattrlal pukllshed In NEWS FROM BELGIUM may be reprinted without permission. Please send copies of material In which quotations are used to this ofDce.

THESE PERIODICAL BULLETINS MAT BE OBTAINED FREE ON REQUEST.

On Daydreams and Democracy

IFe are entitled to our dreams: to those Those who have no daydreams or who which come by night and so smoothly efface gave them up, get drunk: on words, on the boundaries between reality and phan• rhythm, on work, on drink. Drinking is the tasy, freeing us from the limitations of the easiest way of shedding the thousand shacks outside world, which are apt in the long les that bind us to our duties, our sorrows run to kill our energies and depress our and the manifold other forms of our medu spirit. We are told that the longest dream ocrity. A wise man never blames a drunks lasts only from two to three minutes, but ard. He almost never blames anybody bui in that short time we can go through a hun• himself. Moralists strafe hepcats for their dred adventures until fear or an overbur• rhythmic orgies and predict the downfaU dening joy awakes us. At least when sleep• of our civilization if Frank Sinatra is allov>- ing we live "dangerously." But we also de• ed to go on cooing to lovelorn youngsters. serve our daydreams. They are a safety valve Why shouldn't these young people think and a consolation. The tired executive in that the world is just romance and moon• his office, with the rain streaming down his shine? Who would have the heart to deprive windowpanes, talks about sunshine and them of that vigorous and grave exercise palms. The traveler in his hotel room — it they call rug-cutting, if that is the only way hasnt been "made" yet on account of the they have of escaping boredom and a feel• personnel shortage — alone with his pipe ing of uselessness which is the greatest men and a dirty Gideon bible, longs for his fire• ace of youth? place at home. The intellectual fighting We have our individual dreams, but wt against an unending avalanche of books also have our dreams in common. We dream says, "I'll take to the woods," and the farm• as Joe Doaks, but we also dream by con• er's daughter wants to see Broadway. tagion, as citizens; we have our national and NEWS FROM BELGIUM FEBEUAKY 5, 1944

even our international daydreams. Right mode of living and a conception of world now our dream is to see democracy estab• relations different from Eurasia, it is imper• lished all over the world. Such is our ideal. ative that we should know each other bet• Americans know very well that democracy ter. The United States have applied or tried in these United States is far from perfect, to apply democracy on a large scale: they that a lot is to be done, and that several have succeeded. In their rightful satisfaction groups in this country feel that it is sheer with this remarkable success they sometimes hypocrisy to proclaim a belief in democracy forget that democracy was not invented and at the same time to permit conditions here, that it has been practiced and has to exist which are shameful from the human worked effectively for many centuries in standpoint. They know too that some peo• several European countries. Bringing de• ple associate democracy with lawlessness mocracy to Belgium, for instance, would be and they remember the astonishing answer carrying coals to Newcastle. two girls gave when arrested for picking Of course we owe everything to the flowers in a public park: "They're ours as Greeks; no better, no more eloquent defense well as anybody else's, aren't they? This is of local democracy has ever been given than a democracy!" the one the historian of the Peloponnesian It is inevitable that when dealing with an War, Thucydides, records as being delivered idea as important and delicate as the demo• by Pericles on the dead of Athens. Pericles cratic faith, misinterpretations will arise. does not exalt "Greek" democracy. No, he Religion may lead to enraptured mysticism, pictures the political regime of Athens, a but ever so often it leads to plain bigotry. small town according to our modern con• Politics can lead to statesmanship, but they cepts, but in that city the majority rules, can also occasion vulgar graft. Human na• there is no compulsion as in Sparta, there ture is such that any noble idea suffers from are no secret weapons. Any stranger can being successively handled by more or less walk around and observe the defenses of intelligent or interested people. Fortunately the town. But although nobody is educated public interest among the Allied nations in for war, in times of danger everybody goes the democratic idea does not suffer from out and fights with determination and valor. selfish motives. After all, it matters little to Among these "amateurs" in warfare, these the average American if the Bolivians or "military idiots," as the Spartans esteemed the Uruguayans decide to have a Fascist or them, the love of the democratic homeland a democratic form of government. But if was so great that the tomb of Aeschylus, the these people take the wrong course he will father of the Greek drama, is inscribed not be genuinely affected, because he feels it is with any reference to his tragedies, but a pity that they should err on the road to a with the words, "of his noble prowess the better world, his dreamland, his universal grove of Marathon can speak." Utopia. The Belgian cities, especially the towns With anxiety and even with tenderness, of Flanders, have for seven centuries studied Americans ask the question: "Will Belgium democracy in anima vili, as experimental be a democracy after the war?" And they subjects. The towns originated around a are wont to add: "Will the monarchy go feudal castle or around a prosperous abbey, on?" It was Rabelais who first remarked, and when the inhabitants had grown nu• "Half the world does not know how the merous enough they exacted certain ar• other half lives." In Rabelais' time this may rangements from the feudal lords or abbots. have been of little importance, because one They made a contract, they received a char• hemisphere could not learn anything from ter defining their rights and their obliga• the other, but now that the Western hemis• tions. Of course the lord did not wish to phere has found its way, has developed a lose face in the proceedings. He stuck to the

[38] NEWS FROM BELQITTM FEBRUARY 5, 1944 theory that his power was a hereditary and portant change had to be made in this celestial privilege. If he consented to aban• text, notwithstanding the rapid and radical don a fragment of his authority, that act changes in the social and economic aspect should be considered a gracious gesture on of the Kingdom. The authors of the Belgian his part. He "granted" rights, he did not constitution did not want the king to be a simply abandon them. The communes devel• despot. In fact, they gave him very little real oped, they became powerful city republics, power. They stated as a principle that "all they oppressed the smaller townships, they power comes from the nation." The king is fought each other. Often they attained their supposed to be the arbiter above the parties, autonomy and their independence at the the umpire among the political teruiencies. highest cost. Inside their walls, just as He is bourui by his oath to the constitution. Athens did, they achieved democracy. They It is said very clearly that he is the king "of had to get rid of the patricians who for a the Belgians" not "of Belgium," that he is while transformed the system into an oli• a symbol of national unity and not the pro• garchy, and very often the common people, prietor of the country. He does not own Bel• in their endeavor for better representation gium, the country owns him. in the city government, were helped by the local rulers. The organized guilds want• The only party ever to proclaim the re• ed to have their share in the common• publican principle in Belgium has long wealth: they fought and defeated the patri• since dropped this argument and there has cians. Then opposition arose between the never been any instance of one of the kings guilds; one group, the weavers, say, or the of the Belgians trying to slow down the dem• fullers, wanted to dominate. Bloody encoun• ocratic evolution of the country. Universal ters followed, but order finally prevailed. suffrage was achieved after the last war, fol• Democracy was achieved. It has been Bel• lowing a royal promise in 1918. gium's rule since then. Most of the present- The Americas had to fight kings and em• 1250. day Belgian villages originated before perors to secure their freedom. In In the seven hundred years that separate most of the countries settled the relation be• them from their origin they have always tween king and people once for all a long believed in government of the people, by time ago. People there know that there is the people, and for the people. nothing incompatible between a democratic regime and the existence of a monarch. Con• But even those Americans who are fam• fusion arises when those terms are used in iliar with these basic facts of Belgian his• an archaic sense. Confucius, the very enemy tory seem to feel that a monarchy cannot be of confusion (excuse the moronic pun), a real democracy. In some way they associ• ate monarchy, even constitutional monar• once said: chy, with royal despotism, with tyranny, — "A superior man considers it necessary benevolent tyranny, but tyranny still. The that the names he uses be spoken appropri• revolutionaries who secured Belgium's inde• ately. What the superior man requires is pendence in 1830 and drew up the Belgian just that in his words there may be nothing constitution, were young men. One of the incorrect." most influential among them, Nothomb, was Would it be too daring a daydream to only 25 years of age. They were extremely hope that when this war is over the word liberal in their views, and their discussions democracy will be understood everywhere resulted in a document which was copied by correctly, so that "the superior man" may several other European countries which be happy, with a solid chance for the not so have come of age since then, — Roumania, superior iruiividual to share in this intellec• for instance, — and so wise had they been tual and political bonanza? that for more than fifty years no really im• —THE EDITOR.

[39] NEWS FEOM BEiiOiTTM FEBKUART 5, 1944

Belgians deported to , Bochum, Dua- 1. Belgium seldorf, Cassel, Ludwigshaven, and Hanover were called on to help in the work of salvage during the air raids on these cities. A. The War German hospitals are overcrowded with in• Devastation in Described — Before jured persons, particularly in the Ehineland the recent heavy RAF raids on Berlin, the secret and in the Eiffel region. Patients who needed sur• newspaper Echo de Belgique published an arti• gical operations and had been removed in am• cle on the demoralization of the German capital, bulances were refused admission at several hos• as follows: "We cannot repeat too often how ill- pitals, and had to be taken back to their homes. informed we are, in occupied Belgium, of what German pharmaceutical chemists have been issu• goes on abroad. Little wonder, then, that we lis• ed with passports enabling them to travel in occupied Belgium, where they requisition med• tened with keen interest to the recent account icaments which have become unobtainable in given by a friend who had just come back from . Berlin, a Belgian clerk who, being out of work, had been deported to a Berlin suburb. There he Officers of the German army reserve hitherto was compelled to carry cases of chemicals all employed as supervisors in the factories of occu• pied Belgium have been recalled to Germany to day, until he fell ill and was finally sent back resume active service. to Belgium. The Minister of in Germany, to "Berlin lives in a state of panic, he informed mitigate the acute difliculties caused by the RAF us, a panic not easily imagined. You will re• bombing and by sabotage, has recommended that member, the London radio kept us informed of every freight train, whether German, Belgian the heavy raids inflicted on the whole of Germa• or French, be loaded above the authorized max• ny and the capital, but stress was never laid on imum weight. The excess load, however, must khe moral consequences of these frightful bomb• not exceed one ton. ings. For my own part, I had the personal ex• perience of sleepless nights in constant dread of A German Soldier Speaks — In occupied further raids. I assure you, Berlin is absolutely Belgium, a German soldier made the following panic-stricken, and constantly the prey of a ter• spontaneous statement to a Belgian: ror which shatters the calmest nerves. "I had five brothers, and only two are left: I "If only you could see the conditions in Ber• lost one in France and two in Russia. I had a lin now! You would realize the panicky condi• house in , but that was destroyed by a tion of the population. Museums, churches, hos• bomb. My wife and my four children have been pitals, factories, fine edifices and dwellings on evacuated. Before the war, I served ten months' main boulevards and avenues—all is now re• imprisonment because I did not like the Nazis. duced to rubble and dust, covering thousands of Germany will only surrender when she has been corpses. overwhelmed by the air raids. Then we shall "Destruction is on so vast a scale that it is revolt." not possible to contemplate rebuilding all the edifices demolished by the Allies' bombs. Add Recent Exploits of Belgian Officers in to all this the fact that food supplies have been RAF — The Belgian Ministry of Information reduced to the barest minimum, that wearing announces: apparel and other essential articles have become Belgian Flying-Officer A.V., member of a extremely scarce and expensive, and it is not British fighter squadron, has just been awarded difl[icult to grasp the profound misery that has the Distinguished Flying Cross. The citation befallen the majority of the population. And accompanying this award states: this applies not only to Berlin but to the whole "Has participated in over fifty sorties during of Germany." which he has destroyed three enemy aircraft. Wlien attacking targets on the ground, Flying- Evidences of Hoiv Severely Germany is Officer A. V. has damaged three barges and a Afflicted — Continual reports from occupied locomotive." Belgium reveal the extent of war damage and Flying-Officer A. V. is a young Belgian Lieu- economic dislocation in Germany. tenant-Aviateur who was already the holder of

[40] A Bit of Belgium in England

Elementary Art Training. This little girl, ahsorheil in clay modelling, is being kept healthy and happy against the day when she can return to her liberated homeland. A Suiemn Moment. Will all the candles go out at the first puff? Four Little Girls From School Are We. Even taking a turn at being "boots" is fun. These are typical scene* from one of the schools for young Belgian refugees established by the Belgian Government in England. Recess Time in an Outdoor Class. Aliom 2000 formiKUe youngsters wlio managed lo cscapo terror and •tarvation in Belgiiim are leading a carefree and sheltered life in a free country. INEWS FROM BELoniM FEBETJABT 5, 1944 the Belgian Croix-de-guerre with three palms. La Libre Belgique, the leading patriotic secret Belgian Pilot Officer S. destroyed a Focke- newspaper, states that the German propagan• Wulf 190 while on an operational flight over dists are trying to discredit the patriots' organ• France. izations by asserting that they are responsible for People in will remember that, some the outrages of these bandits, who, the paper time ago, a Belgian flag was dropped, and fell says, are putting into practice the lessons of near the law courts, by an airplane of the EAF. their Nazi masters. Pilot Officer S. was piloting that machine. Sergeant E., a Belgian airman in a British Death Penalty for False Identity Card — tighter squadron, shot down a Messerschmitt 109 The in occupied Belgium threaten to on December 3 last, while on a sweep over the impose the death penalty on any Belgian who Continent. makes use of a false identity card. A large num• The Belgian Air Force announces that Fly• ber of identity cards in blank have been stolen ing Officer H., Croix de Guerre with Palm, of from town halls and municipal offices by pa• No. 350 Fighter Squadron, has just "made his triots. century" in sweeps over France. Burgomasters Held Responsible for B. The Occupation Farmers' Resistance — For some time past, the requisitioning of livestock by the Germans in Administration Belgium has been meeting with resistance on Nazis Feel the End Coming — The under• the part of the farmers. ground newspaper Churchill-Gazette states: "It The Eexist (Walloon Fascist) Governor of is not we who are frightened today but the Na• the Province of Liege, named G. Petit, has sent zis. Hence, this reign of terror which the Ger• a circular letter to the burgomaster of the prov• mans have resorted to. Our towns are infested ince, reminding him that "severe penalties, in• with Gestapo agents, and armed patrols stop cluding imprisonment, will be inflicted not only the trolleys and examine men and women and on burgomasters found guilty of failure or even the children's schoolbags. Hauls are made negligence in their duties, but also on cattle own• in the suburbs, roundups in the center of our ers who do not fulfil their obligations. Lists of cities, and sudden swoops in our villages." such defaulters must be supplied to the German The continual deterioration of the morale of military command by the communal authori• the German occupation troops in Belgium is be• ties." coming 80 apparent that the controlled press has several times called attention to it. The Flemish Economic and Social Life Nazi paper, Volk en Stoat, in an article headed Coal Rations Do Not Reach Customers — "Lack of Firmness," analyzes the causes of the Coal merchants in occupied Belgium are now discouragement which has followed the German unable to supply their customers with the legal military reverses. rations. A notice published in the censored press explains that the delays in supplying coal ra• Curfew in Charleroi — On the ground that tions "are attributed not to any defect in organ• a series of acts of sabotage has occurred in Char• ization, but solely to transport difficulties." leroi, in occupied Belgium, the Germans have ordered the cafes and other public establishments Green Vegetables Scarce — Belgium is suf• to close every evening at 7:30 and have forbid• fering from a dearth of green vegetables. A Ger• den all movement in the streets after eight man-controlled newspaper reports that the area o'clock. reserved to market gardening has decreased from nearly 36,000 acres in 1942 to under 30,000 Terrorist Acts of Nazi Deserters Blamed acres in 1943. This decrease has been brought on Patriots — Deserters from the German about partly because colza-growing has been army, from the "Organization Todt" (military made compulsory, and partly because market labor corps), and from Flemish and Walloon gardeners have felt obliged to reserve some of Fascist brigades, are perpetrating many acts of their land for growing cereals and potatoes for sabotage in occupied Belgium. their own requirements.

[41] NEWS FEOM BELGIUM FEBEUAEY 5, 1944

Belgium's Paper Consumption — Before for you to take note, secretly and with the great• the war, Belgium consumed more paper than est precaution, of the known actions of suspects any other continental country. Her average half- of your acquaintance, but retaining only facts yearly consumption amounted to 73 lb. a head, of which you are sure and to which you can whereas the Netherlands consumed only 70 lb. a bear witness when the moment comes. Doubtful head, France 63 lb., Czechoslovakia 38^4 lb., incriminations and suspicions will be classified and Poland 14 lb. apart. The multiplicity of evidence collected and It is estimated that during the first six months prepared and the precision of the documents after the liberation of Belgium the country's will permit the rapid formulation of files, and paper requirements will be 35 lb. a head, or from these dossiers there will emerge precise about half the prewar consumption. and verified charges. Such form of justice in which all will have shared, will contain the best National Debt Increased 95% Since 1940 guarantees of integrity. At the same time it will —A financial newspaper published in Brussels prevent injustice being done, due to personal under German control, states that during the grudges, and there will be no scandal of crimes third quarter of 1943, the Belgian national debt going unpunished." has increased at the rate of 2,100 million Bel• Program of the "Independence Front"— gian francs (about $67,200,000) a month, The November 1943 edition of La Libre Bel• against 1,800 million francs, in 1942-43, 1,700 gique, underground paper, writes: "The Inde• million francs in 1941-42, and 1,300 million pendence Front has not ceased during the first francs a month, in 1940-41. year of its existence to extend its influence to Since June 30, 1940, the national debt has all circles and to all provinces, Flemish as well increased by 64,058 million Belgian francs as Walloon. It appears clearly, therefore, that (about $2,049,856,000), representing an in• the union of all Belgians against the aggressor, crease of 95%. which has been its watchword ever since its creation, is indeed the true reflection of the Resistance to Nazi Occupation dearest desires of all our compatriots. While Belgians Urged to Prepare Files of War praising what has been accomplished, the Inde• Crimes —La Libre Belgique, a secret newspa• pendence Front sounds the call to further effort per published in occupied Belgium, advises its and more complete union still. With this aim in readers to make out and keep a file of war view, it issues the following order of the day: crimes, in the following manner: 1. To wage an implacable struggle against "The first thought of all who have suffered in the occupant by every possible means. this war is that the day of victory shall be also 2. To put an end to Hitlerian robbery by the day of judgment. Far be it from us to blame preventing the enemy from using our wealth, those patriots who take the law into their own our industry, our manpower, and thus pursue bands now and visit immediate justice on known his criminal war against the free peoples. traitors. On the contrary, there is good cause 3. To sabotage and to fight collaboration in all to be glad when persons whose existence is a con• of its manifestations and to denounce the danger tinual menace to the patriots are got rid of as of 'attentisme' (a wait and see policy). quickly as possible. At the same time, it must 4. To punish traitors ruthlessly. be admitted that the great majority of failings, 5. To defend our constitutional liberties of treacherous and criminal acts, will be judged against all institutions and organizations which after the end of the war. are a threat to liberty and were created by the "The Allied governments have resolved to give enemy to enslave us. full satisfaction to this need for justice. 6. To prepare the national rising by activities "In all ranks of the social order adjustments of an ever more daring nature which, at the right will have to be made. The first condition for moment, will rout the enemy and assure to the their just regulation is the speediness of the en• country the institutions which are in accordance quiry and of the judgment. To attain this swift• with its dearest aspirations. ness of action, it is essential that preparation of 7. To help this on the home front in the world the dossiers should begin now. This is possible struggle waged against Hitler and his accom• if everyone contributes to it. It will be enough plices by Great Britain, Russia, the United

[42] NEWS FEOM BELOITTM FEBETJABT 5, 1944

States and their Allies, as well as by all the Butts, Brussels, two of the staff of the State dominated peoples in conformity with this gen• Audit Office, named Hubeau and Gobert, and eral program, is the special order of the day, a student whose identity is unknown. issued by the Independence Front on the occa• Le Drapeau Rouge (Red Flag), secret Com• sion of the 11th of November and endorsed by munist paper, reports that M. Minnaert, former the secret paper Clarte (Light). Brussels pa• Belgian senator of the Communist Party, hat triots, all together on the 11th of November, died in a concentration camp in Germany. strike in your workrooms, your offices, your Marcel Vetalleweck, an accountant living ai shops 1 Hold public demonstrations in places Forest, Brussels, has been sentenced to death b;^ which will be designated to you at the last min• the German military court in Brussels. The sen• ute by the militant workers of tlie Independence tence has been carried out. Front! Fly the national colors; on no account enter any administrative bureaus or public of• Patriots Retaliate in Kind — At Liege, ir fices ! Place fiowers on the memorials of the he• occupied Belgium, the assistant superintendeni roes of 1914-1918 and 1940. Demand the re• of police, named Joba, and the food controller. lease of prisoners of war and political prisoners! Moillet, have been shot dead by unknown as• Contribute to Solidarite! Help the labor 'recal• sailants. citrants' ! Get one new member for the Indepen• At Ferrieres, in the Liege Province, a police dence Front! Punish the traitors, denounce official named Ruth, who was attached to the them, smash in their windows, and give them a staff of the Liege police "reorganized" by a sock in the jaw. Sabotage and destroy everything German-appointed burgomaster, and who had that serves Hitler!" retreated to Ferrieres after a first attempt on his life, has been shot dead by two unknown a? Belgium Reports Atrocities Rising — The sailants. New York Times of January 19 carried a de• spatch from London, stating that proof of new A man named Paul Gilson, manager of the Nazi terror is now in possession of the Belgian Labor Office at Huy, has been shot dead by an Government-in-Exile. It says: "In the last few unknown person. weeks reports from Belgium have confirmed that A man named Bacha, who was an officer in the Germans 'though they must know the hour the Walloon Guard, a Rexist organization co• of reckoning is drawing near, are increasing the operating with the German army, has been killed number and cruelty of their crimes. A large by Belgian patriots. Bacha was on his way to number of Belgians for no valid reason are be• the Petit Chateau barracks, in Brussels, and waf ing condemned to death after summary trials shot down in the street. The assailants have not and the pretence of judicial procedure and many been traced. hostages are shot without even the parody of Home Front Army Seizes Weapons — At• a trial.' tacks and raids are carried out by patriots for "Documentary and verbal evidence of the the purpose of re-equipping themselves with atrocities have been supported by the presence arms and ammunition, or for procuring food in London of the victims bearing on their flesh coupons for provisions. It was reported recently marks of the savage treatment." from occupied Belgium that works were raided The New York Herald Tribune of the same and four and a half hundred-weight explosivcf date reports that in a single month 333 persons and sixteen detonators were carried off. Another "have been executed by the Germans in Belgium report speaks of two unknown armed, masked and conditions in the prisons are steadily grow• men forcing their way into the gendarmerie ing worse, particularly in Brussels." headquarters where they disarmed, gagged and More Names on the Honor Roll of the bound two gendarmes, guarding the food coupoD Dead — The German military court at Antwerp supplies for the locality. The intruders made off lias sentenced to death Joseph Heynen, Willem with 1600 sheets of coupons. Van Staay, and Joseph Van Lanker, all of Some time ago L'Espoir, a secret paper, re• Brasschaet, near Antwerp. The sentences have marked that cases of "lost" revolvers among the been carried out. members of the Belgian gendarmerie had be• It is reported from occupied Belgium that come a matter of considerable concern to the the Germans have executed at the National Rifle Germans.

[43] NEWS FEOM BELQITTM FEBEUAEY 5, 1944

A band of Belgian patriots stormed the cen• tral jail at Louvain, seized the arms there and 2. Belgian Congo made off with them. New Tin Mine at Kakese — Following the Two Factories Besieged — A party of 25 decision taken 18 months ago, a new tin mine saboteurs, armed with rifles and hand grenades, was opened at Kakese in the Maniema district, attacked the Phoenix Works at Flemalle-Haute, after building approximately 35 miles of road Liege. Two of them were wounded in a fight and cultivating about 4500 acres of land to en• with the factory guards. After hurling their sure food for the workmen. At the present time bombs into the factory, the saboteurs withdrew, 2000 natives are at work on the roads and mines, taking the wounded away in a truck. but the workmen will soon number 4500. The first bag of casserite extracted from Kakese was Another group of saboteurs invaded the Co- handed to the territorial administrator of Sha- ckerill works at Seraing, but retired after at• bunda by a representative of the Kivu National tempting to take some motor which had Committee, which works the new mine, now one been put out of commission. of the principal tin-mining centers of the Congo. Attacks on Transportation Facilities — Margarine for Europe — Heavy stocks of Complying with directions issued to them by margarine will be sent to the countries of Eu• the Allied Command, patriots are making con• rope as soon as they are liberated. Margarine is centrated attacks against railways in order to made with palm oil, of which the Belgian Congo disorganize Nazi transport. In one week 41 acts produces at the present time 110,000 tons a of sabotage were reported on the lines of Hai- year (in 1938 the production was only 74,000 aaut Province; trains were stopped and set tons). In the course of the last three years great going again with drivers, bombs were placed progress has been made in the treatment of the on tracks and rails unbolted; signal boxes were fruit of the cabbage-palm. In the past, the na• destroyed with dynamite; bombs were attached tives extracted the oil themselves by a primitive to ties; brakes were released while cars were process. At present factories in the Congo are standing in sidings; pumping stations were put perfected to such a point that 90% of the oil they out of action and Westinghouse brake tubes were produce can be used in the manufacture of mar• severed, immobilizing hundreds of cars. garine. Five masked patriots attacked a freight train uear Ath, Hainaut Province, uncoupled the loco• Improvement in Vital Statistics — In the motive and set it going again. The runaway en• province of Katanga, Belgian Congo, the death gine collided with an express train. Eighty-five rate has fallen from 55 per 1,000 in 1926 to 7 passengers were injured, two of them seriously. per 1,000. In the same period the birth rate has In one night, in the province of Hainaut, sa• risen from 19 per 1,000 to 38. boteurs blew up the lock-gates of the canal con- This improvement in vital statistics is attrib• aecting Pommerocul with Maubray; those at uted to the industrialization of the region, which Stambruges, on the canal from Blaton to Ath, has increased the purchasing power of the na• md also the lock-gates of the River Dendre. tives and has also led to the development of so• Water transport is thus suspended between the cial services, hygiene and education. Tournai district and the rest of Belgium. Strategic Road Completed —In the Nortli- Belgian Ex-Minister is Slain — The New East of the Belgian Congo an economically and Fork Times of February 2 prints the following strategically important road has just been com• aotice: "The German-controlled Brussels radio pleted. There exists now a motor-road between said yesterday that Frangois Bovesse, a former Bumba-port, on the Congo River, and Aketi, member of the Belgian Cabinet and former terminus of navigation on the Itimbiri River. Governor of the province of Namur, had been Transport between Bumba and Aketi will now shot in his home at Namur by 'four unknown be possible in all seasons. A number of European persons,' the Office of War Information report• engineers and native workers, as well as impor• ed. M. Bovesse, a Liberal deputy in the Belgian tant equipment, became thus freed for other Parliament at the beginning of the war, was work. They will probably be employed shortly known as a strong anti-Nazi." in the Maniema tin mines.

[44]