OBITUARY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 41, 18 February 1939, Page 9

OBITUARY

M. HENRI JASPAR Received Feb. 17, 5.5 p.m. BRUSSELS, Feb. 15. The death has occurred of M. Henri Jaspar, a wartime politician and a former Prime Minister. He failed to form a Cabinet after M. Spaak’s resignation on February 9. A lawyer by profession, M. Henri Jaspar first came into prominence in Belgian politics through his work as a Cabinet Minister during the Great War. He was born at Schaerbeck, near Brussels, in 1870. While Minister of Economic Affairs in IJIB, he organised tK .e reconstruction of Belgian indust! ?s and the following year became c puty for Liege. In 1920, having been appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, he endeavoured, during the inter-Allicd conference to strengthen the entente between England, France, and Belgium and to secure a larger amount of reparations and greater security for his own country. Belgium’s entry into the League of Nations was almost entirely the result of his work. In 1921 he concluded an economic agreement between Luxembourg and Belgium, and later commercial treaties with other adjoining countries. He took part in the Dawes Plan negotiations of 1924, but resigned his post as Minister of Foreign Affairs on March 11 of that year because the Chamber rejected the Franco-Belgium Convention. In May, 1926, he took office as Prime Minister, adding to his work by also taking over the portfolio of the Interior. He held office until 1931 and the following year became Minister of Finance in the Broqueville Cabinet.