The announcement in the Speech from the Throne that King
George has invited the King of the Belgians to visit him next month seems to me very interesting. Constitu- tional sovereigns are not so common in Western Europe that the meeting of two of them is a matter of indifference. King Leopold, who is 36, is six years younger than King George, but in his three and a half years' reign he has shown himself a factor to be reckoned with in the life of his country. Nor is his activity confined to Belgium. His letter to his Prime Minister, M. van Zeeland, in July on world economic conditions testified to his deep concern for the reduction of tariff barriers everywhere, and it is known that since then his conviction of the necessity of that step has deepened. There can be little doubt that in formal and informal conversa- tions in this country he will express the earnest desire of countries like his own to see the Great Powers pressing ahead with any bilateral or multilateral agreements that may make for an increase of international trade and at the same time of international understanding.
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