Kidnapped King

The green-garbed German officer was abruptly firm: the Fuhrer would not tolerate delay. For the last time handsome, sad-eyed Leopold III looked down from his Laeken palace-prison on swans nodding whitely in a blue lake, on the withering bloom of purple rhododendrons beneath stately beeches. Stiffly he turned, walked out to a waiting car, climbed in beside his commoner second wife (to whom he had given the title Princess de Rethy). As helpless as any of the 600,000 Belgians who had preceded him, the King of the Belgians was deported to Germany.

Just four years had passed since German might and Allied weakness forced young Leopold (then 39) to surrender himself and his armies to the Wehrmacht.

Last week in London exiled Belgian Prime Minister Hubert Pierlot broadcast to Belgians: "The enemy . . . hastens to put the finishing touch on his work of disorganization and destruction of the state. . . . On the deliverance of Belgium . . . the King will recover . . . the exercise of his prerogatives." Winston Churchill affirmed Allied support of the exiled Government. If the Germans had hoped to wreck Allied plans for Belgium by spiriting away the King, they had failed.

No Simple Matter. The restoration of Belgium will be difficult. Allied plans call for an election as soon as feasible after liberation. But every fourth voter has been deported to Germany. A majority of them will have to be returned before the voting. In a total 2,670 communes, 2,300 quisling mayors have been put in power. They will have to be ousted, replaced by trustworthies before normal order is regained. From the 45-mile sea-coast 180,000 people have been shoved inland. They must be returned. Wrecked residential and industrial areas must be rebuilt. Belgian railways, looted by Germany, must be rehabilitated.

Belgium also has political problems. The Socialist Party, the second largest, has drawn up a list of social reforms, and the exiled Government has agreed to many of them. But on one point there is deep disagreement. Belgium's dominant political group, the conservative Catholic Party, is firmly committed to the monarchy. Almost to a man, BeHan Socialists want to be rid of Leopold. They do not mind having a king, but they have had no use for Leopold since his surrender.

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