OCR Text |
Show Rccs Brand Leopoldists As Leader's Assassins glum, with only seven seats In the house of representative. There was no official announcement announce-ment as to the identity of the assassins. Le Drapeau Rouge, official Communist party newspaper, charged that "our dear comrade Julien Lahaut has been assassinated assassi-nated by Leo-RexisU." The reference ref-erence was to partisans of the king and the prewar Fascist Rex movement. Lahaut was popular among Belgian Bel-gian workers. Large crowds gathered before his house during the night A strike was called In Seraing suburb where he lived in protest againat the assassination. assassina-tion. ; - LIE OK, Belgium, Aug. 19 ( Julien Lahaut, bead of the Belgian Communist party, was shot to death at his homo Friday night and the official party newspaper charged Saturday pro-Leopoldiat War respoosibls for the assassination. assassina-tion. His wifs was a witness to the killing. He was riddled by three buDeU fired by on of two gunmen gun-men who drove up to the Lahaut bom fa Liege suburb about t:S0 pjn. "... Mrs. Lahaut aaid tha men, appearing ap-pearing about 20 year old, rang the bell and asked to apeak to her husband. "I am Mr. Hendricks," said one. 1 want to apeak to Mr. Lahaut" Fired Three Times lahaut, 68-year-old leader of Belgian's estimated 100,000 Communists, Com-munists, cams out of the kitchen. One of tha gunmen fired three times. Each bullet found its mark and Lahaut fell with two wounds in his head and one in his body. Police said the bullets war fired from either a revolver or a submachine gun. Lahaut, a veteran member of parliament was bitterly anti-monarchist. anti-monarchist. He represented Industrial In-dustrial Liege, on of the storm centers in the recent strife over ths issue of King Leopold's return from exile. H was credited with shouting "viva la republique" during the .joint session of parliament at which Crown Prince Baudouin waa sworn in a prince royal thua ending ths immediate threat of civil war over the return of Leopold. Leo-pold. K Official Word ' Tha main opposition to Leopold's Leo-pold's return waa from the Bo-etalixta, Bo-etalixta, who are avowed antl-Communista. antl-Communista. The Socialists were anti-Leopold and not antimon-archiata. antimon-archiata. The Communists are not a numerically strong party in Bel- |