INSIDE STORY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1941, Page 6

INSIDE STORY

OF BELGIAN SURRENDER IN MAY, 1940 TOLD IN LAW COURTS IN LONDON. ACTION BROUGHT BY SIR ROGER KEYES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Cojjj’right) (Received This Day, 12.40 pm) ' LONDON June 13. What is believed to be the inside story of the seven tragic days leading to the surrender of King Leopold of Belgium, was told when a settlement was announced in the Law Courts of a libel action brought by Admiral Sir Roger Keyes, against Daily Mirror Newspapers, Ltd. Sir Patrick Hastings, counsel for Sir R. Keyes, said that within a few hours of the German invasion of Belgium on May 10, 1940. Sir R. Keyes, at the request of the British Government, flew to join King Leopold as a special liaison officer. He remained until May 27, when King Leopold asked for an armis- L tise.

[ Mr Churchill, on May 28, in apnounc- ■ mg the surrender, asked that judgment be suspended until the facts were known. Sir Roger Keyes, in the Lobby ol the House of Commons, echoed this advice. Ihe "Daily Mirror,” on May 30 published an attack against King Leopold and Sir R. Keyes. Sir P. Hastings described how the British Army and the French Northern Army were ordered on May 20 to prepare to fight iheir way south-west, to regain contact with the main French Army It was clear that unless the Belgian Army could conform with this movement there would be a breach of contact between the British and Belgian armies King Leopold informed the British Government that the Belgian Army had neither tanks nor aircraft and existed solely for defence. King Leopold did not feel that he had any right to expect the British Government to jeopardise the existence of the B m' S n A ™, y in order t 0 keep contact with the Belgian Army, but wished to make it clear that if there were a separation between the two armies the capitulation of the Belgian Army would be inevitable. The Belgian Arr ?- V ’ at the rec iuest of the French M- lgh £?? lmand ’ - v ’ as withdrawn on May 23 from a strongly-prepared position on the Scheldt to a weaken and longer line on the Lys, to allow the British Army to retire behind a defensive frontier line to prepare for a I southward offensive. Fighting on the ' Belgian front had been continuous for ; four days. The Belgian Army, by May 2,, was running short of food and , ammunition and was being attacked bv ' at least eight divisions, including ar- . moured ones, and waves of dive-bomb- , ers. King Leopold asked Sir Roger Keyes to inform the British authorities that he would be obliged to surrender before a debacle occurred. The German Army by the afternoon was attacking refugees and men. women and children were being mercilessly bombed and machine-gunned. In these circumstances, at 5 p.m. on May 27, King Leopold informed the British and French authorities that he intended al midnight to ask for an armistice in order to avoid the further slaughter of his people. Sir P. Hastings concluded that Sir Roger Keyes, in light of his knowledge, felt justified in suggesting a suspension of judgment on King Leopold anresented the attack on himself. Defendants accepted Sir P. Hasting’s statement and regretted that they had been misled by an unimpeachable source. The judge ordered the defendants to pay damages, the amount of which was not stated and also costs.