Confusion in Belgium M. van Zeeland's Bill granting an amnesty
to War-time traitors (persons sentenced for treason during the War) has had unexpectedly serious results. Last week ex-service men rioted in the streets of Brussels, cast away the war medals which they said had been dishonoured, and now have obtained direct access to the King himself, whose interview with the presidents of the ex-service men's associations may raise rather delicate questions regarding his position as a constitutional sovereign. M. van Zeeland's object was clear enough. The amnesties would chiefly benefit the Flemish separatists ; and would thus, after the collapse of their alliance with the Rexists, give them a stronger sense of national unity and perhaps withdraw them from the influence of Nazi and Fascist propaganda. But the Bill has served only to arouse a violent opposition among the Walloons and ex-soldiers, which, apart from its own seriousness, has also intensified other divisions in M. van Zeeland's Cabinet. A serious crisis in Belgium would be singularly unfortunate, for the stability of the country, small though it be, is of international importance, and M. van Zeeland himself is engaged on work of high international value. Those affected by the amnesty are few, and it might have been thought that War-time offences might properly be wiped oat after twenty years.
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