Belgium: Empire Poverty

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One group of young hotheads rushed to the main railway station, breaking win dows inside and smashing the front of the station post office. When mounted gendarmes galloped up, the rioters hurled firecrackers at the feet of the police horses.

New Undertone. Through it all, supporters of the throne detected an insistent, alarming new undertone. One of the first buildings attacked and smashed was a movie house advertising a film of the royal wedding. Some in the marching crowds cried "Vive la République!" interspersed with chorus after chorus of the Marseillaise, which in Belgium has a distinctly revolutionary, antimonarchical flavor. Baudouin and bride heard none of this as they stepped out of the plane at the airport. "Vive le Roi! Vive la Reine!" cried the small welcoming delegation. Then, under heavy escort, their limousine bore the royal couple through the riot-torn city to the palace.

But Baudouin's presence did nothing to soothe the strikers. Next day a rampaging mob of 5,000 clashed with saber-swinging police in front of the Sabena airlines of fice; in the crowd, someone pulled a pistol and fired wildly, fatally wounding one striker, injuring others. It was the first serious bloodshed, but perhaps not the last, since the Socialists swore to keep the protests going indefinitely.

Would the King bow to Socialist demands that the Crown Council — which meets only at the most critical moments in the nation's history — be convened to discuss Premier Eyskens' proposal? Eyskens himself opposed the idea, insisting he always was ready to discuss amend ments to the bill in the proper place —Parliament. Withdrawal of his Loi Unique would amount to an admission of defeat and political suicide for the present government. The young man in the royal palace, however, has his own future to consider.

As for the nation's deeper malaise, Economics Minister Jacques Van der Schueren had stern words for Belgium's commoners. "Ten years ago," he said in a nationwide radio address, "Belgium was rich, envied and respected. But this privileged situation carried within itself its own seeds of destruction. Belgians felt they had to live better and better . . . We refused to contemplate our own future . . ."