King & Rex

Belgians opened their newspapers one morning last week to read that handsome King Leopold III and his brother Prince Charles would next day lead a pilgrimage of many thousands to Marche-les-Dames where King Albert three years ago fell to his death from a mountain (TIME, Feb. 26, 1934), that the widowed Queen Mother Elisabeth would visit the spot after the pilgrims had gone. Troops, war veterans, civilian organizations were to be drawn up in solemn silence while King Leopold reviewed them.

Next day came, but to Marche-les-Dames went no King Leopold, no Prince Charles, no Queen Mother Elisabeth, not a single member of the Government. Reason for this sudden change of royal plans was that the Rexists, Belgium's two-year-old Catholic-Fascist party, decided at the last minute to use the occasion for a mass rally. Because royalty must be above politics, King Leopold and his entourage stayed at home while 5,000 Rexists rallied at the Death spot. Though Rexists take their name from the Latin Rex (King), they are not the King's party but "followers of Christ" (Christus Rex).

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