PLACES IN THE NEWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 143, 17 May 1940, Page 5

PLACES IN THE NEWS.

HISTORIC LOUVAIN. Louvain, now one of the principal cities in the news in connection with the invasion of Belgium hv tile Nazis, had a population in 1930 of 38,700 persons. Situated in the Province or Brabant, Louvain was the capital before the rise of Brussels. Local tradition attributes the establishment of a camp tliere by Julius Caesar. In the Fourteenth Century it was the centre of the wool trade in Belgium and had a population of at least 50.000. A feud developed between the patricians and the citizens, and alter a struggle of over 20 years the citizens were overtbrown and many weavers fled to England and to Holland. Brussels then prospered at the expense of Louvain, widen regained importance as it became a seat of learning. In 1679 the university was established in the Cloth Workers’ Hall, but the university was destroyed, with a famous library, in the German invasion of the Great War.

Louvain is remembered from its experience in the Great War not only lor its beiug ravaged and burned by the invasion, hut also lor the resistance, not V force hut on moral grounds, to Germans by Cardinal Desire Mercier, who held a chair of philosophv at the Institut Superior de Philosophic there before becoming Archbishop of Malines and then a Carol ml.

When the Belgians were retreating Ivio e the vjioiman Army Cardinal Mercier was in Rome, hut on his return he lsoimu a pastoral letter, “Patriotism and Enduiance,” protesting against the burning of Louvain and other excesses committed by the German army and defining the position of tile people toward the occupying Power. The Belgians, he said, owed in soul and conscience neither respect nor allegiance to this authority, which was not lawful, hut must accept German regulations so long as they did not violate their duty to their country, the army alone having the right to resist, openly. the invaders’ power. He maintained this attitude, in spite of German pressure, until the invaders finally retreated and lie was then greeted by the German Governor as “the revered spiritual leader of the Belgian people.”

■ RAILWAYS AT NANCY. Nancy, which had a population in 1931 of 112,000, is 219 miles east of Paris on the railway to Strasbourg, and is an important railway junction. Although it remained outside the area of actual fighting during the Great War, it was bombaided by German aeroplanes and long-range guns, but damage was not very serious. The city is on the left bank of the River Meurthe, six miles above its junction with the Moselle, and is on the MnrneRhine. Canal. The railway from Paris to Strasbourg skirts the city and others —to Metz, to Epinal by Mirecourt, to Chateau Salins—to join the main line near Nancy and make it an important junction. The town consists of two parts, one, the old (with narrow and winding streets) and the other, the now (with wide straight streets). There are great and imposing buildings of the eighteenth Century, among which is a cathedral. In, the light of learning the Church, trade and the army (Nancy being the headquarters of the XX Army Corps) it is an important centre. There are a largo number of manufactures produced there and among them machinery, motor cars and spare parts, engineering material, farm implements and iron goods. Gemhloux is a town in the Province of Namur, in Belgium, 25 miles southeast of Brussels on the main line to Namur., In 1930 ;t had a population of 5200. It is a busy railway centre with engine works. .GREAT WATERWAYS.

Winding their way through the Low Countries almost side by side are two great artificial waterways, the Albert Canal of Belgium and the Juliana Canal of Holland. Round them both the tide of war has llowed in the last few days, and as a result the Dutch canal must be in German hands, .while, lighting grimly from part 6 of the fortified Albert Canal, the Belgians strive to stem the onslaught of the invader. Neither canal has long been completed. The Juliana Canal was opened amid national rejoicing by Queen Willielmina in 1935 and the Albert Canal was then unfinished. Both have a common purpose, to provide quick transit for goods from the Industrial areas round Dutch Limburg and Liege, in Belgiiim, to the sea. Perhaps one canal could have served the purpose instead ■ 4 two, but tne Dutch and the Belgians found it difficult to see eye to eye in the matter, which is also said to have been complicated by the intense rivalry between the two great cities of Rotterdam and Antwerp, the respective termini. There were other considerations also, for the Belgians wanted their canal as the bulwaru.of their northern defensive system. In their respective policies here tli* Belgians have been called exponents of the “war is war” theory arid the Dutch of the “business is business” motto Re that as it may, both countries built remarkably fine canals. Of the two the Albert is the greater work, as it is three times as long as the Juliana (which links with another canal) and, having had to be coii-tructed through rougher country, involved the greater technical prob'ems. The canals, which cost an immense amount of money, are able to carry slnps of 2000 tons. Both canals are models of technical efficiency when it conies to handling ships and their cargoes, with locks and elaborate loading gear. Along the 127 kilometres of the Albert Canal, for instance, there are six locks, each with a double chamber and with doors and sluices operated electrically.