Into Exile

Airplane commutation between Brussels and St. Wolfgang (Austria) has stopped. In four eventful days last week Belgium's royal D.P. (Displaced Person), King Leopold III, finally made up his mind. So did his Parliament.

The constitutional crisis had dragged on for more than a month. Socialist Premier Achille van Acker was adamant: the King must abdicate. In St. Wolfgang the King was undecided; every night he said yes, every morning he said no.

Faced with a general strike if he returned to Belgium, Leopold finally announced that he would not go back to Belgium. He would not abdicate, either. But he would abide by the people's will in a "free and honest election." Promptly Parliament slapped him down. A bill barring Leopold's return without Parliament's consent was carried in the Chamber of Representatives by 98 votes to six, in the Senate by 77 votes to 58. Leopold's only supporters were the Catholic party, whose six Cabinet ministers resigned.

For two hours next day Premier van Acker berated his King for conduct inimical to the welfare of his country. The Premier charged that Leopold had 1) expected a German victory; 2) interviewed Adolf Hitler after Belgium's capitulation to arrange postwar collaboration with Germany; 3) refused to back the Belgian Government in Exile; 4) rejected advice to escape and join the Maquis.

Now it was up to the Belgians to uphold Parliament's decree of banishment in a national referendum. The issue would not be the monarchy, but Leopold. Three years hence, Leopold's son Prince Baudouin, 15, if he grew up of a sufficiently royal figure to fit the battered royal throne, would presumably become King of the Belgians.

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