"Damnably Unfair" To Blame Belgians And Their King

Chronicle (Levin), 17 January 1949, Page 5

"Damnably Unfair" To Blame Belgians And Their King

Received Monday, 10.20 a.m. . . BRUSSELS, Jan. 16. A Diesaage from Mr. Churchill, urging King Leopold of Belg"ium to come to England with his family after the German break-through in May, 1940, never reached him, according to documents published today in the Catholic newspaper, La Libre Belgique.

A report ori the message is eontained in a 40-page letter which the paper said, was sent on June 12, 1940, by the late Admiral Lotd Keyes, then British liaison officef With the Belgian General Staff, to Lord G-ort, former commander of the British Expe'ditiopafy Army Force. The paper said that the letter had been kept secret until its present publication. Mr. Churchill aske'd Lord Keyes to do all in his power to persuade King Leopold to make for England, but Lord Keyes did not receive the message until he had been back in England for several days. "When I saw the Prime Minister and Cabinet imme'diately after my return to London, there was no question of blaming King Leopold for having laid 'down arms," Lord

j Keyes wrote. - "Itow can ohe | blame him since the last message ' from the Prime Minister that King Leopold should have received 3d nours before takiilg the decision stated cleariy that we Were on the point of abandoning the Belgians, King Leopold ordered his army to hold, the llne on the Rivfer Lys until the last man. Ofdefs were given to the artillery to stand by their guns until their ammunition was exhausted, or until their guns were silenced, "There is no doubt that from the time it became evident that the B.e.f. had no (intention of coming to the aid of"the Belgian Army, the latter lost courage. "It seems to me damnably unfair to throw all the blame on. the Belgians and try to make their King a Frenoft and British scapegoat."