Firm Hand

BELGIUM

Belgian Cabinets these days are as flimsy as playing-card castles. Month ago King Leopold III accepted Premier Paul Henri Spaak's resignation in the Flemish v. Walloon crisis caused by patriotic War veterans (TIME, Feb. 20). He asked Walloon Catholic Henri Jaspar, who had been Premier from 1926 to 1930, to form a new Cabinet. After two days of fruitless interviews, Jaspar gave up; 36 hours later he died of a stomach ulcer about which he had told no one. Former Cabinet Minister Hubert Pierlot, also a Walloon-Catholic, tried next. He built up a Cabinet of Catholics and Socialists which toppled after exactly one week. King Leopold, who is said to feel that something old and yet new in the world--autocracy--might not be bad for Belgium, this week stepped in with a firm hand. He dissolved Parliament, ordered new elections on April 2.

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