File No. 855.50/20
The Minister in Belgium ( Whitlock) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 10, 7.34 a.m.]
153. Director General of the Belgian Foreign Office in absence of Hymans has been to see me with reference to the program of reconstruction of Belgium. He says that he fears that there is a misunderstanding at Washington of the situation and implores me to help him to make it clear. The situation in Belgium is indeed grave. There are no means of giving employment to the industrial population and with events moving as swiftly as they are, within a fortnight the regions around Charleroi and Mons will be delivered and a million workmen, nearly all Socialists, will be demanding work and if it cannot be provided the gravest social disturbances are to be feared. The Belgian Government is in despair and looks to America and to Hoover for that help which has heretofore never failed. England indicates its willingness to give priority on all orders for machinery for Belgium, and while France can do little the relations that have existed between Belgium and these two countries make it impossible for Belgium to exclude their interest. What Belgium wants is industrial machinery to equip her factories and so Belgian Government would like to have priority given to orders placed in America and priority as well for their shipment to Belgium, the credits to be adjusted according to the program already submitted at Washington. If that program is not acceptable the Belgian Government would like to have the American Government or Hoover send at once a criticism of the program or suggest another program or delegate some competent person now in France to discuss the details. The urgency is great and if Belgium is to be saved some solution must be reached before the rest of her territory is delivered. It is with the greatest sympathy for the situation in which Belgium now finds herself that I forward for Belgium appeal to the President, to you, and to Hoover. We have saved her from famine, we must save her from revolution.