Belgians are solidly pro-British

From PETER J. O'GRADY
Our Correspondent; formerly in Belgium
Despite the stringent Nazi control I am able to-day to make a fair portrayal of Belgium viewed from the inside. The most outstanding fact is that the Belgian population is staunch in support of their valiant prisoner-King, and is, moreover, unanimously proBritish.
Famine is in sight. A hunger crisis is expected about the end of February. Queuing up outside bakers' shops for bread that is 40 per cent. bran is now the rule.
Public opinion is wholly opposed to the National Socialist regime. Sabotage and passive resistance obstruct attempts to adapt Belgian economy to the German order.
EXPLOITING INTERNAL DIVISIONS
To counteract the persistent loyalty of the Belgian people to their own regime and dynasty, Hitler's avowed henchmen and spokesmen, the subversive Belgian " Leaders," are hotly campaigning in favour of the Nazi " New Order." Yet they are not in agreement. A rift has broken out between the Resists and their former close allies, the Flemish Nationalists.
Under the leadership of the notorious Staf de Clercq, the Flemish Nationalists oppose the Belgian State under King Leopold on the plea that it is a mere piece of English
diplomatic invective. Leader Staf foresees a proposed vassal State under Germany designed to embrace all the populations of Netherland origin and tongue from Boulogne to Friesland.
Where the Rexists part company with the Flemish Nationalists is in their different claim. They clamour for a neutralised Belgium, one completely under Germany's thumb.
DEGRELI.E AT IT AGAIN Resist Leader Leon Degrelie is again busy captivating the lovers of the spoken word with his spell-binding oratory, that I have listened to with many a thrill in the years elapsed since the inception of the Rexist Movement.
Degrelle's theme is that the youth of Europe must become one in the struggle for the " New Order " under German Nazi rule. He predicted the other day at Liege that German arms are going to triumph. Why? Because " the Nazi cause is just."
" England is doomed," he shouted; " 1941 will see the final destruction of English plutocracy." Full confidence in the Fuhrer, " the biggest man of our epoch " is his latest watchword.
Another figure prominent in subversive activity is Henri De Man, the one-time idol of the Belgian Socialist Party, the financial expert whose handling of Belgian finance brought Belgium to the brink of bankruptcy.
De Man hails a coming German victory. and trounces his fellow-Belgians for thwarting the setting-up of the National Socialist Order.
THE SUBVERSIVE EDITOR
Paul Colin, able editor of the former Cassandre weekly, which strongly supported Rexism, is yet another supporter of Nazism. Colin has started a new paper in Brussels, Le Nouveau Journal, which upholds all the Nazi ideals. The Belgian broadcasts from the B.B.C. upset poor Paul Colin, and he confesses it candidly in his new paper.
It is not to be imagined that these subver sive Leaders and their small tile of followers are of any importance. They are a very feeble minority, and despicable at that. Their activity is a diversion that the bulk of the Belgian population relish as something to break the monotony of the occupation. Moreover, only a tiny fraction of the Flemings have joined the 1914-18 Actionist policy the Germans are now attempting to revive.
In civil spheres opposition to Nazi domination is very pronounced. An instance illustrating this is the total abstention of all the Municipal Councillors—save one— from attending a Council convened by the burgomaster of Dixntude appointed by the Germans, who had ruthlessly deposed the legal burgomaster appointed by the King.
Civilians may now enter the zone between Bruges and the Belgian coast. Travelling into the interior is so hampered by restrictions as to be practically impossible.
Market vendors and hawkers in Brussels, of Jewish origin, are now banned from plying their trade. At New Year their licences were not renewed by Order of the Nazi Authority.