Majesty in Council

All by herself spunky little Belgium decided last week to default, thus set an example to the pandemoniac French Chamber of Deputies which led directly to the default of France (see p. 11).

In Brussels there was no pandemonium. The question to pay or to default was not debated by a brawling Belgian Chamber but dispassionately considered by "His Majesty in Council"--that is, by King Albert (who has no Council vote except to break a tie), Premier Count Charles de Broqueville and the rest of the Cabinet.

Urbane Count Charles, a Catholic statesman intimate with his Catholic sovereign, had called in Georges Theunis, Minister of Defense, former Premier and negotiator in 1925 of the U. S.-Belgian debt settlement. He rehearsed the facts. Belgium had expected to receive German Reparations payments totaling $1,632,522,000 by 1988. In this expectation Belgium agreed to pay the U. S. a total of $727,830,000. Thus far Belgium has received $182,200,000, paid $39,800,000. Under the Hoover Moratorium all German Reparations payments ceased and have not been resumed. In these circumstances M. Theunis advised the Council to default its Dec. 15 payment of $2,125,000 on capital and interest, which it promptly and unanimously did. Acts of the Council must, theoretically, be ratified by the Chamber and Senate which, in practice, never refuse to ratify.

As a gesture, prompted by the fact that Belgium's elections last November weakened the Cabinet's majority, Count Charles resigned but was immediately reappointed by King Albert. The Belgian default communique called payment "impossible," stressed Belgium's "regret," offered the U. S. "complete collaboration with a view to seeking an all-around debt settlement"--i. e. renunciation by the U. S. of part of what Belgium promised in 1925 to pay.

In Brussels last week it became known that King Albert, always a major factor in Belgian crises, recently consulted famed French Economist Francis Delaisi and said pensively to him at their last conference in the Royal Palace: "I am profoundly convinced that our civilization is at a turning point. Can we maintain it as it has been? That is the problem which haunts me day and night. Do you know, M. Delaisi, I find myself strangely preoccupied by what is going on in Russia. Is it the end of all civilization which is being prepared there? Or is it a new order? How much I should like to know--to really know."

In Antwerp last week Belgian art critics had a chance to judge the work of Queen Elisabeth, a portrait of her daughter Princess Marie Jose, wife of Italy's Crown Prince.

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