THE CHINA. MAIL, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 1959.
MOST CONTROVERSIAL OF ALL EUROPE'S ROYAL FIGURES
Her fury silences
(Continued from Page 6)
frontiers of Belgium, and a woll
of steel and fire dropped between Liliane and the king.
Forly miles from Bruges, the old men's home of Alost stood full in the path of advancing war, Those Inmates who re mained wero the ones who were too weak to flee. It was néces- sary to evacuate them.
Every mile of the escape roule was pitted with holes from the bombs that had dropped on it: and the Stukas roared over I discharging their streams of machine-gun bullets into the mass of
trucks, cars, wagons, and bleyeles that choked
thin It was on
rond ոլ Liliane Baels aat behind the wheel of a Red Cross ambu- lance for it was she who had
the mission of evacuating the old men from Alost.
When Lillans turned heavy
ambulance into
her this
road everyone else was Becing the enemy; she alone was push Ing towards the front.
For the whole distance hor two right wheels were out of the ditch; often whole car was off the road,
rarely the
She reached Alost at last and filled the ambulance with the old men of um hospice,
The Slukas struck almost as soon as she moved off. They pulted the crowded road with their metalle hall
One bullet crashed through the top of the car. The man ui her side slumpect against her, and the ambulance swerved.
the jibes
at Leopold
hair
head striking the dashboard. handling an invaded Belgium Through his matted
she had not included having to could ace the low, dark welling recken with the presence of the of his blood and she realised king. that he was deark
When General von Reichenau Trembling, Liliune brought telephoned to Hitler. and the car to a stop. She had reported the muntender of the never seen violent death before. King, all Hitler could think of to say to him was "Handle the king as best you can."
She held the dead man up with one arm and turned wild-
to
ly towards the road, looking Von Reichenau declded for someone to help. But by held the king prisoner in his
own palace at Lacken,
ner poured the stream of re- fugees, each intent on his own troubles. Everyone had to be self-sumclent.
To Dunkirk
belt
Allene pulled off her and tied the body beside her to the door-handle.
☆ ☆
On May 28, Liane Baels wes in the dining room of the Inn where she had stopped with her mother and sisters. There were number of young Frenchmen in the room.
The radio was purring, in
Suddenly A
The moment of weakness had corner.
She had work to do. announced- passed. She put the car In gear and again became part of the creeping current of the crowded ing the British Fond. It was with a dead man north has
Anished enemy alone.....
after more than 24 hours on
the road.
4
voice
"Since four o'clock this morn, Army in the been fighting the
Liliane gritted her teeth and beside her that she clung to the wheel.
the agonising drive to Bruges. One of the young Frenchmen She arrived on May 18, 1940, jumped from his seat, snatched up a copy of a magazine from a neighbouring table, tore off the cover which had King Leopold's on it, crumpled it up, She found Bruges in turmoil. plcture Half the population had fled, threw it to the ground and
The trampled on it. were freng. the rezt Kirects were choked with mill-
Simultaneously, the group Inry vehicles. Troops, their
burst into loud abuse of the lined
with exhaustion, King of faces
the Belgians. The were everywhere. And the gov
words "traitor, turn- coal, ernor, her father, had disap caward, criminal. Nazi," filed
In fact, he had been
the air. injured in a collision and sent off to Le Havre.
upright
With one hand she wrenched the wheel back to position. But The mar with her fell forward again, hig
JACOBY on BRIDGE
SON
peared
Alone
Lillone was left alone to safe guard- what femained of her family,
Malling this letter in a town about to be overrun by the cnemy, addressed to country rendy occupied by the enemy, was lika placing it in a botue and tossing it into the sta. But it was the first letter she had ever written to Leopold, and her writing it zmehow' made real better.
Search ends
The new at the surrender applied a psychological brake to the Baels family's fight.
It reminded Liliane that she had another family problem to solve. Where was her father?
Leaving the rest of the family at Bernay, Lillane retraced her way, looking for her father.
A KING'S TWO WIVES
In many Belgian homes there still hangS the portrait of the much-loved Quena-'Astria' (above), who was killed in Leopold's car in 1935. To some Belgians the biggest crime of the Princess de Rethy (right) is that she ,has taken Queen Astrid's place.
The Bacis family returned to attempts to extract from Hiler
food supplies, their home àt. Bassussary, bul concessions over for the country and un casement by now the friendship of Lillane to of the internal administration. with the king had ripened Hitler at Arst disdainfully the point where. It was normal rejcetod all pleas, Laver, he for them to write to each other. iried to win Leopold's rapport tried to by offering extensions of Belgian territory as far as Calais and Dunkirk.
At Evreux che could find no trace of him, nor at Rouen; and when she entered Le Havre she
for steeled herself
another Cries of fruitless Inqulates,
She made for the City Hall us her the likeliest place to start search, it was jammed with a
She dens crowd. squirm through and pulled back suddenly as she realized the way. joelling a man hobbling shend of her on crutches. Then the man tumed his head, and she graped.
"Father," she cried, Her search was over.
Frequent visits
I
Francu fell in its turn. became, like Belgium, part of German-controlled Europe, and Lilione sprang up, her checks it was once again poable to blazing.
the mave from one courusy to
other. Henry Boels chafed to ashamed," return to Belglum, to report to the king and char himself of rumours that he had dearted his post. Liliane agreed to drive him to Brussels.
"You ought to be she cried. "A man who has fought to the end! 1 know he has I know! You ought to be ashamed!"
NOME of the most Interesting
She bundled her play occunts at the one level. West hod
of those sisters into a small *one shaded, nonvulnerable diatribu-hended routh along a road more woman, raging
and he
encumbered tional doubles,
was desperately decidedly unhappy when is that to Alost had been
pariner left it i
NORTH
WEST
• None
10705
ФАК84
10953
Q XQ842 J1U32 4J74
EAST
15
J07832
Q05
АКО
SOUTH (D)
AAK1090
+70
VAJS
402
North and South vulnerable Bouth West North East 14 Double Pass Pass PASH
Opening lead-◆ K
West led the khay of dta monds. In this situation, it is normal practice and usually best defence-to open trump, but West just didn't have one of those cords to lead.
AP
East played low. He did not Want to force declarer,
the jack of diamonds.
and
mother and She advanced on them like a car and fury. But the beautiful young with patriotic than anger in defence of her ling,
did not move them.
There was little Improvement They stared at her contemptu- Then they turned their even across the French frontier ously. at Dunkirk. Here Liliane tried backs and walked out, desperately to find some trav: of her father, but in vain.
They still pushed southward, fonting In the sea of refugees about them.
From outside the door, where she had left her car, she heard the crash of breaking glans.
tho
She rushed out. The young Licht were naming down the scet. They had smashed the They continued to Bernay, windows and windscreen of her south of Roven. They had now,
thrown car and
away been nine days on the road and
Ignition key. were 105 miles from their starting point.
Surrounded by a hosille popu- not much Jallon, there was
she bub
The king had "surrendered. Liliane could do; Whether Leopold served h decided that she would write a country better by slaying in jetter to the king. Belgium after the capitulation
then he might have done if he In It she expressed her had gone into exile was a loyalty and her faith in him, much debated question. But on and her refusal to accept the
an
On the day after their return Henry Baels was bidden to sec
Queen invitation from he ng and Liliane received Elizabeth. ̈ ̈
Henry Bael was reeved in the
4 "Bungalow,"
small wooden building in the grounds a Lacken.
The interview wus cordial. well the Leopold know, too father and himself Lervices, of Henry Baels to his harbour doubts, about him. Besides, had noi he himself some experiencs of hasty judgment?
In a romant near by Queen Elisabeth was informing Lillane that she should stay to lunch.
Joined his So when Leopold mother he found Llane there.
Pleas fail:
Leopold Was In uniform.
thing was certain: that his de- charges which were being made Liliane's comparsionate woman's cision left the Germans eghast. against him by the Premier of
Their political plans for France.
• BY. THE WAY.
a
by Beachcomber
eye noticed at once that the events of the last few weeks had left their mark on him.
Overwhelmed by the disaster
had which
overtaken his country he had suffered 100 from the uttacks directed against him personally.
The first words he spoke to had Liliane revealed that this been weighing on his mind.
West made the brilliant shift to the live of hearts
SouthTHE directors of Shibbe have give them a casual look. One ex- insued statement denying pects them to let out a cynical won with the ace, led a trump
their to dummy's queen and played that one of their advertisements bark from the side of
lise Mr Alan Ladd, on hoardings has any polical mouths, significance.
Restaurants in the West End are
"Never, Sire," she answered. naturally against copying the idea in England. The dogs
Her letter from Bernay, it might soon learn to stick the poemped, had not reached him. gum on to table and chair legs, If it had he would not have or onto waiters" breeches, asked that question. But how Why not try it on parrots, te could the mention it now? keep them quiet?
9.
West won this trick, and led
second heart which Fast! Tufted. East led the king of clubs and West signalled with the ten, whereupon East under- * led his ace.
.
Now West gave his partner another heart ruff for the sixth defensive trick.
Fast got out with the ace or
clubs which South ruffed, and since South Was
VOTE FOR SNIBBO.
and
SAVE LABOUR
"This slogan," says the state. He would have his fun
Wrote Schmidt: "Hitler never forgave Leopold for refusing his offers at Berchtesgaden,"
Page
hia having naked her to come.
On July 18, in the "Bunga- low" of the park of Eacken the king confirmed to her what the
important matters" were.
Six months passed. Then in July 1941, Liliane received a strange letter front the king. It as it happened, the stay was to must be some other reason for
be longer. asked her to come and see him, at Lesken to talk with him' The invitation of the queen about "very important matters." mother could hardly be reused, I was a moment of greatest The king returned home
second lotter reached torment for Lillane. She had understandably
trom depressed. Bassussary,
Queen fallen deeply in love with this During this period the queen Elisabeth Lo Madame Boels, man, and instinctively she know marry me?^
sho allow her, that he was in love with malber felt strongly the grief asking
her. of her fom,
them for a Yet she still could and it did not daughter to visit
not quite escape her that his morale was few days. “We won't keep her bellove it; she stili struggled strengthened by Lulane's from you for more than a with the idea that she must be wook," the queen wrote—though, deceiving herself, that there presence,
that
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On the following day, July 10, the king's mail included a battered, travel-stained envelope, which had taken 44 days to
ment, "refers to our world- E roveller who was asked reach its destination. The letter famous floor-polish, not to Socialist candidate,"
say to legya
public house from Bernay had arrived. because The W15 wearing a saucepan as a hat and insisted Liliane and her father remain- that he was the ghost of Nelsoned some months #t Brussels, MAN who damaged a ploce recalled to me a case in court and now, aho was invited often
down to Atonalistic stresses
trumps he had to lose a trick
o East's jack.
+CARD Seriseko
-- Q-The bidding has been:
South North Kast
Pats a PRES 3N.T Тока
・
Your South, bold:
A of sculpture by knocking a some years ago. The man, lo Lacken, sometimes by the
hole in it should have claimed accused
10 to listened that he was bringing it up date. He should huve Bald: castigation "The absence of holes cisturbs silence.
which: from his pocket harmonies
"West tho
PAKE
Fuss
ABAVITI 4KJ62-49943
What do you do? A-Tay! Your partner, has lot
you off the hook.
TODAY'S QUESTION · Your partier has opened the Bidding with 'no heart. You beld: AJET VER $987-8AJ94)
What do you do?"
(Answer on Monday}}"/
mass
It wing at
of drunken brawling, king, sometimes by the "queen
the magistrate's mother. It was apparent
that of his conduct Ini Leopold
Ercally appreciated Then he produced Liliane's lively company..
acrumpled
this time that anthociso a formalise rhythm paper hat, put it sideways on Leopold was summoned by a and symbolic patternisation, his head, and said gravely; triumphant Adolf Hitler, who this producing a balance of "Napoleon crossing the Alpe." price. As Gwap sald, the Before they could remove him, hoped to win him to a policy of elimination of realistic form to adjusted the hot back to
said, content results in a forniceness front, which itself
form coming back.” absolute, anhampered by Ae the party naturalistic simplification. Thal
Jock has more ❝SN'T that your third
band. över flern?** than energy
"Possibly. I can't recall taco for the moment.”
is why emotional QUilsio."
✡
Becomes
an
Chewing gum for parrota EN America there is a chewing- -gum for doga. It is gold to
and
"Napoleod
his
co-operation.
tool place at The "meeting the "eagle's nest" in Berchics- gaden. Hitler's interpreter, Dr Paul Schmidt, who mavived the war, later wrote an account of the interview, of which 'ho was. the only witnes
In his newoung he mid that.
"O course not. One marries Leopold Insistently, demanalod.
so many people."
1thi TOFUÏDI Of Belgtitný prisotera -(London Exprese Service)......... of war, ant ratio
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