BELGIUM: Mixing Delay and Haste

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Most of the nation was at lunch, but in their restaurants and homes Belgians fell silent as the youthful voice, how and then shaking slightly with emotion, came over the radio. Later, 4,200 miles away in Léopoldville, blacks and whites heard the same words blaring over the loudspeakers of sound trucks. Lean, spectacled King Baudouin had taken it upon himself to explain in person his government's long-awaited program to give independence to the Congo, that vast land 80 times the size of Belgium, that was once his great granduncle's personal fief. Only a week before, nationalists had been demanding independence in the bloodiest riots Léopoldville had ever known.

Just when independence would come, the King did not say. But the old paternalistic era of satisfying economic needs while denying blacks and whites any political voice was over. By the end of the year, the government promised, there would be "freely elected" town and rural councils in addition to those already existing in the big cities. By the end of 1960 new councils would be set up for the Congo's six provinces. Eventually, there would be a house of representatives and a senate to take over the duties now performed by the appointive Governor's Council in Léopoldville and the Colonial Council in Brussels. The government spoke earnestly of wanting to end racial discrimination, reforming the courts, extending education and social security. It also expressed the hope that once free, the Congo would keep ties with Belgium, like those that President de Gaulle has asked for from France's former colonies. "Our firm resolution now," said the King, "is to lead the Congolese people, without fatal delays and without rash haste, onward to independence."

For all the initial calm and generally welcoming acceptance of the King's speech in the Congo, many Belgiums feared that their government may have waited too long to make its offer. In Léopoldville Belgian paratroopers still patrolled the streets, hundreds of whites are keeping revolvers handy, and as long as the city's three top burgomasters (all black) remained in jail, disorder might strike at any time. Warned the Gazet van Antwerpen: "With oppressed hearts we wonder whether the people who yesterday stood against each other as enemies will be able to collaborate."