Autocrat's Adieu

One of the few autocrats brought to power by World War II was a stern but kindly old gentleman who had no claim to kingship, no ambition to tyranny, and no practice in governing. His realm was a miniature collection of former German areas annexed by Belgium and strung out along its border like charms on a bracelet. Under a six-power agreement signed in Paris in 1949, these territories, 7,789 1/2 acres in all, were placed under a special and independent administration, pending a final peace treaty. The man chosen to head that administration was Major General Paul Bolle, grizzled and nearsighted after 43 years in the Belgian army, but still straight as a tentpole.

A soldier who fought the Germans in two wars, spent five years in their prison camps and another three commanding a regiment in the postwar German occupation, General Bolle got plenipotentiary powers and was answerable to nobody in his new job. He swore in a 37-man civil service, including two gendarmes, to carry out his orders. As virtual dictator, French-speaking General Bolle might well have exerted a tyrannical sway over the 704 German-speaking woodcutters, dairy farmers, amateur smugglers, refugees and commuters (to nearby towns in Belgium and Germany) who peopled his realm. But General Bolle was not that sort. "They were all good people," he said of his subjects, "and, all in all, they behaved very nicely. That was fortunate for me. If ever I needed gendarmes, they could not have come because they were not permitted to enter my territory. My court was only capable of dealing with smaller crimes, and if anyone had ever appealed a verdict, I would not have known what to do."

Coffee Helped. With help from borrowed Belgian experts, and an annual stipend of some $50,000 from Brussels, Bolle and his staff learned how to set up a budget and a social-security system, organize a school system and run a miniature railroad. Usually pinched for funds, Bolle conducted government business largely on a cash basis, selling the wood from his forests to Belgian mines for cash and paying cash in turn for the services of neighboring fire departments when trouble struck. Like all independent border states, Bolle's realm was a hotbed of smuggling, and a seized load of contraband often came in handy to balance the books. "Not infrequently," says Bolle, "we confiscated whole truckloads of coffee. We would then sell it and put the proceeds into the budget."

During the years that followed, many a former German in the land of General Bolle came to prefer his benevolent rule to that of the fatherland. But great nations must follow their own great destinies regardless of personal preferences, and last week, with the scratch of a pen in Brussels, the kingdom of General Bolle was signed out of existence.

Careful with Money. In a treaty resolving the border problems, West Germany and Belgium agreed on a final division of General Bolle's border enclaves. To Germany went:

P:The little town of Bildchen with its 350 inhabitants.

P:The village of Lichtenbusch (pop. 3). CJ The road from Roetgen to Lammersdorf, a marsh, a small forest, and the villages of Losheim, Hemmeres and Leykoul (combined pop. 295).

To Belgium went another forest, another road, and the village of Losheimergraben (pop. 56).

"I have served, and I have been careful with the money," said outgoing Dictator Paul Bolle. "They have been good people, and I shall be sorry to leave them."

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