There is no meat and scarcely any bread in the liberated industrialized regions of the Netherlands. Hordes of refugees had swarmed into the cities, further complicating the food crisis.

In Belgium last week the crisis came to a head. Ever since his return from exile, Belgium’s Communists have attacked Premier Hubert Pierlot. They have criticized his Government’s courageous but unpopular deflation program (TIME, Nov. 6), its slowness in purging collaborators, its handling of food rationing and crippled communications. When…