BLOW TO FASCISM

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 406, 13 April 1937, Page 5

BLOW TO FASCISM

BRUSSELS BY-ELECTION WILD SCENES IN CAPITAL Rexists Utterly Discredited. Press Association —Copyright. Received 1 1.30 a.m. Brussels, April 12. A prophetic result of the Brussels by-election was the grotesque figure of M. Leon Degrelle, leader of the Rexist (Fascist) Party, drawn through the streets of Brussels all day inscribed: “I am going away forever.” M. Degrelle plainly is discouraged, biit he said to-day that he would be carrying on. Dr. Van Zeeland, the Prune Minister, declared: ‘‘The result surpasses all my hopes.” The Rexists not only have lost a seat in Parliament, leaving a representation of 20 members, but they have been utter- . ly discredited. Wild scenes followed the declaration of the poll. Fifteen thousand men and women, chanting the “Dead March” and carrying dummy corpses, endeavoured to inarch to the Rexist headquarters. Mounted police charged the crowd marrj times, knocking down and trampling on several demonstrators. Order eventually was restored. Singing, cheering crowds thronged the streets until midnight. The general view is that M. Degrelle will quietly fade out of the picture. It is unlikely that those mysterious sources so liberally financing the Rexist propaganda will continue to face so decisive a defeat. International observers regard the result as a decisive blow to Germany and Italy, which countries had more than an impersonal interest in M. Degrelle’s success. The French Press, according to a message from Paris, generally hail the defeat of M. Degrelle as a marked blow to Fascism, and proof that the traditionally-Democratic countries are not succumbing to the wave of totalitarianism. A message from Berlin states that the Press are permitted to publish only the bare figures of the election. The Government Spokesman said that the result did not concern Germany.

RISE OF REXISM.

Unexpected Gains at Last Election. Economist, juris? and Dr. Van Zeeland is in his 44 th year, and was educated at. the University of Louvain and Princeton University, America. He it* a former director and vice-governor ef the Belgian National Bank, professor of the law faculty at Louvain and director of the Louvain Institute of Economic Sciences. A delegate from his coun'ry to practically every important inter, national conference since 1922, he became a Minister without portfolio in the de Broqueville Cabinet in 1934. He became Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Commerc|e in the Catholic-Socialilistv. Liberal coalition in March, 1935. Rexism burst unexpectedly out of the ballot boxes at the last election in May, 1936. Entering the electoral Hstf for the first time after only six

months of existence as an organised movemenit, the Rexists obtained 21 seats out of a total of 202. Tl(e followirtgi table shows the positions of the parties, with three gains and l lostes, after the poll:

Spectacular Victory. Commenting on the result, one writer said: When one takes into account, however, that the new Chamber contains 15 more deputies than the old, it Is seen that the three parties constituting the Na/tiorfil Government —Catholic, Liberal and Socialist- —may really b.e said to have lost respectively 21, 3 and 6 seats. The Communists therefore tripled their representation at the expense of the Socialists, whom they accused of having become too bourgeois. The Flemish Nationalists doubled the number of their deputies as a result of the' intensification of the national-istic-linguistic issue; apd the Rexists took 21 seats from the Roman Catholic Party. This spectacular victory is due almost entirely to the efforts of one man. M. Leon Degrelle, founder and leader of the Rexists. A brilliant speaker with a generous measure of that same magnetic oratorical power which has made Herr Hitler (the Fuehrer of Germany, M. Degrelle conducted a dynamic electoral campaign, speaking sometimes 10 or 12 times a day in different parts of Belgium, always to enthusiastic multitudes. _

a s rt c5 Xj GJ U 02 '2 o GJ I Flemith Nationalists 16 8 — Catholics 63 — 16 Liberals 23 — 1 Socialists 70 — 3 Communists 9 6 — Rexists 21 21 —