ALSACE-LORRAINE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 69, 16 December 1918, Page 5

ALSACE-LORRAINE

THE GERMAN CRIME OF 1871

"WOE TO THE CONQUERED"

(By R.R.8.)

General Gouraud, at the head of.'/his army of liberators, entered the ancient end bistorio . city of Strasburg a jiew ■weeks ago amid.the "delirious acclamations" or three hundred thousand people. The other day the official entry was made by President l Pbino'aro ' and M. Clemence'au (President of France),'and tit the subsequent ceremony : their charter ' of liberty was handed to the Strasburgers. . To. the world at large this,- '. is no, doubt .'something inore. than' an _ event; to Alsatian's and"Lbrraihers it is.much more; it means the difference between free and joyous life and a hideous living tlenth.. The occupation of Strasburg following on the heels of the . entry into'Matz ineans that for all practical purposes Alsace-Lorraine,' the- : historic Stolen Provinces, have passed, surely, for. all time, into the hands of those to whom they rightfully ' belong—the French people. What tragedies those forty-seven long years have . witnessed— 'for they were not loved by the conquered, these Germans! Of all the conditions of peace about to be dictated by the Allies, the handing back'to Franco of the stolen provinces of .Alsace-Lorraine will' probably .prove the most bitter pill of-all for Germany to swallow. This bitterness w-ill qierhaps z be natural, for the- possession of these provinces meant much to Germany, both militarily and economically; they comprise one of. the richest territories in ' Central Europe. The manner of the passing of Alsace-Lorraine under German rule is so well known .that it needs no elaboration to-day. Suffice to remark that the annexation was perpetrated by methods peculiarly' Prussian: by a combination of force'and trickery. Bismarck's famous "Ems telegram" is a perpetual reminder, of Prussian linscrupulousness, although it. is fair to notice that the i main, responsibility for the annexation in 1871 is not Bismarck's; he, saw, with his. uncanny far-sightedness.that, in spite of having been onco German, and with a population a considerable portion of which still spoke German, -Alsace-Lor-raine had become French" in, heart and spirit and could only be an embarrassment ;tp : Germany. But Germany's one great modern statesman was ignored.

The Spoil—a Land of Plenty.' Alsace and- Lorraine combined cover an area of 5601 Square miles, maintaining (according to the 1905 census) a population of 1,814,626. The soil, particularly of .Alsace, is wonderfully fertile,- and produces in abundance potatoes, cereals of most kinds, sugar beet, hops, tobacco, flax, and hemp; and among' the most valuable crops are grapes unci fruit. The farms are mostly held In. 'email areas. In Lorraine there are mined : great deposits of coal, iron, and salt. The hills in both provinces ■ are • generally richly wooded with fir, beech, and oak, and the State forests contribute about a ninth of the total revenue. The territory has ateaysibeeh the centre of an active, com-, merce owing to. its situation on the confines of France, Switzerland, and, Germany. In short, a land that the predatory instincts of the Prussian were unable to. resist! To justify;the crime of 1871,. Germany claimed that the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine had for centuries been disputed territory, anyway; and'that 1 at'least 85 per cent, of the. inhabitants spoke German and therefore leaned rather to Germany than. Prance.. These, claims are worth examination. In the year. 1697, by the Treaty of. Rysivick, ' the whole'of Alsace (with the exception Of a'few small areas whioh wsre acquired by.' Prance during the Revolutionary wars) became incorporated in France.' Lorraine in 1766 similarly was definitely merged in the Kingdom of France. That is to say, in" the year of annexation: by Germany Al-.. sace had.been indisputably French for 8 .period of 174 .yoars and Lorraine, for 105 years.,. So. we thus can understand why on September 30, 1872 (the day,by which the people, were required to determine whether, they would, consider themselves German subjects and, remain, or Pr.enoh, subjects and, transfer ..their doiuicile to France) 45,000 elected ".to, bb 'still French, anjd, we art! -told, "sorrowfully, took their departure." . ,

We see, then, Germany forcibly annexing a fertile and smiling countryside, peopled by something over a million inhabitants. She undertook a great responsibility. How has she fulfilled'her trnst? How have Alsace-Lorraine : and its inhabitants fared Tinder the' German?' Did the new masters hold with their own Nietzsche that "the conquered belong to the 'conqueror with, his wives and his children, his goods and his blood"? And how much truth is there in the Eren6liinan Gasselin < Lenotre's estimate of the German—". . ;

who is fundamentally' incapable of seeing that one nation may. differ from another in its tastes, its-traditions, and its character; who holds that nothing is good that, is not German; and who mistake his purblindness for genius, l his rigidity for uprightness, hie vapourings. for theories, and his crudeness for culture"? It has been said that "there is' one : instrument which the Germans'have never learned to play—that instrument is Liberty." Over a hundred years 'ago, Hilaire, Belloo tells us, .D'anton',- one of the greatest figures in the Revolution, "understood in some fashion the" nature of the Germans and' the foolish'mania of their ralers for mere territorial expansion unaccompanied, by persuasion or the spread of their id?as." Captain Gronqw, wild was present at the Battle of Waterloo, and entered Paris with Wellington's' army,. says of the Prussians : — We perceived, on entering France, that our allies'the 'Prussians, had committed fearful atrocities on the defenceless inhabitants of the villages' and farms ■ which lay in their line of march. Before wo left. La Belle Alliance, I had already . seen. . the brutality of some of the .Prussian infantry, who hacked and cut up, in a most savage manner,, all the cows and pigs which were in the. farmyards ;. placing upon their bayonets the still-quivering flesh, and roasting it on the coals. On our line of march, whenever we arrived at towns or villages through which the Prussians had passed, we found that every article of furniture in the 1 ouses had been destroyed in the most wanton manner; looking-glasses, mahogany bedsteads, pictures, beds Rnd mattresses, had been hacked, cut, half- . burned, and scattered iibout in every direction'; and, on the 'lightest remonstrance of the wretched ii'habitants, they were beaten, in a most . shameful manner, and sometimes shot. It is quite clear that the British soldiers nt Waterloo were ashamed' of their P"issian allies. But is is with the German of our own time.with whom we are eenoenied. and. judged only by hi"! record in the annexed provinces, at bottom he differs' not a whit from the German of a hundred or even two hundred years ago. "France Living on in Alsatian Souls." Shortly after the outbreak of the present war the famous French novelist. Rene Bnzin, in a foreword to a new edition of his book. "Lcs Oberle," wrote: "Fourteen years before the present great war, in order to write this book, T travelled and stayed' in :11?ac». n ni'urhri who feared to find nothing .but the ruins of the past, and ish.es thrown to the winds. How greatly then was I moved ,tp find, on the contrary, France ever living on in Alsatian souls. . . ." "Gradually, and by unimaginably mean and exasperating measures, the life of the conquered people was rendered intolerable," wrote an Emrlish 1 wr.iter, Miss M. Rednni-Edwrds. in her' book "Under the German Ban in Alsace-Lorraine." This lady not' merely visiled the'provinces, h»t aelimllv livpd 'here for some years, Her indVtinent of German rule is damnirw. "Since the accession nf William IT." she writes, "a more rigid Pru?sion regime nut in force throughout Alsace-Lorraine has only served onn purpose, to render still morn odious the nationality thrust upon a proud and patriotic, people." Under the German there has never been liherly, as n Britisher understands the term, in Alsace-Lorraine. The nonGermans were only remitted the exercise of their own religion and the use of the French tongue under restrictions.

The exercise -of-these--restrictions involved the presence -of German detectives in the churches. In the primary schools the children were taught the German language and' German History only— the pronouncing ,-of a single word of French wa9 sternly forbidden. And if this were not sufficiently humiliating, the lessons were, so framed as. to glorify things, German, while on the other hand a studied, humiliation of France was in the class-room' constantly aimed at. Why, it may bo. asked, did these French people endure these things? The answer is a perfectly simple one: because thoy! owned the: soil: because they ■ loved their beautiful country nestling under the- shadow of -tho picturesque Vosges; and bec.vuse, in- some way or other,'they .lived on hoping for the day that has now so splendidly; dawned. Some, .it is true '(wrote Rene Bazin) rallied to Germany out of sheer interest; none have done so out of sympathy.

"Truly Awful." But'it must not be supposed that the life of tho Germnus in the conquered provinces during theso forty-seven years was a rosy due, '. The task of holding Alsace and Lorraine against the wishes of their populations and against the wishes'of France was. no easy one. There was only oiie path to security, and that was ,to make the territory impregnable. "Consequently, the Germans were compelled to convert a peaceful countryside into a vast fortress. The soldier,' therefore, dominated' .the situation "in a way which tends to reduce tho status of civilians to flint of ennipi followers." Thus, we are told, nost office clerks wore serdi-military dress, and carried a, sword on occasions of ceremony!' The Custom" hoa/;e officials not only'had swords, but huge revolvers at 'their' girdles. The railways, all beting' State railways, were under the direction of military men. ."Metis is avast. Camp; Mulhouse a vast barrack; Strasburg is only to be described as truly, "awful." And in addition, as a crowning horror, sons, of Alsatians and Lorrainel's were compelled. Id 6erve in the German.Army. " . . " But enough has been said and written during all these years to prove the utter loathing of (he..inhabitants for their brutal masters. To-day Strasburg, tho cradle Of .the "Marseillaise" (for It was, in Strn.sburg in'the year 1792 that Rouget de LisM composed tho immortal 6ong,that electrified a nation—if not a continent), is free. The imperial eagle has been displaced by an emblem of Liberty—tho Tricolour. ,■ Can we wonder that the army-of. libera tors, were "deliri-ously-acclaimed"? Those (if there be such) who do wonder are advised 1 to read that immortal little classic of Alphonse Danders, "The Last Lesson;" which even Englishmen have- confessed they were unable to read without teare. The scene is a little village school in Alsace; tho time 1872. Little Franz is late, cud .is afraid of 'a scolding, but when he enters tho schoolroom •he realises that something extraordinary has happened. ' Quick, to your, place, my little Franz, we were about to; begin without yoii." then Franz notices tho teacher is dressed in his "Sunday, best," while at'the farther end of the-room are seated the ex-mayor and tha ex-postman'(theso hav-' ing been replaced : by Germans) arid other prominent', villagers. Tlib old .schoolmaster'-' then rises, , and in grave and subdued voice children that it is tho last-French lesson they will receive; that to-morrow only German will .be taught by a new master froiii Berlin. "Anyhow-1 remember that last lesson I' says little Franz. "All at onco tho church clock struck twelve, and the Angelus sounded. At tho same moment a troo,p of Prussians returning from ..exercise, blew .their, trumpets as thoy, passed under our win. idows. Pale as death, the master-rose from, his seat, never had he seemed-to me so great. _ ■' 'My friends, my friends,' he got out, "He could.say no more. Then pullling himself togother as best he could, he seized a piece of chalk and on the blackboard wrote in big letters— " "Vive la. France.' "His head .fell back; leaning against the wall, without a word he Waved his hand, the gesture saying— " 'All is over—you may go/ " Tho return of such a people' to their Motherland not only .means the righting of a hideous wrong; it was inevitable. In the, words of President Poincare, "the nightmare is now over, and the dream of many years-has become a fact." :•"•■■'.: ■ , .

The Question of Autonomy. ' At the official entry the; other day President Ppincare "definitely rejected the idea of \a .plebiscite for Alsace." During the "period of the present war there were those' who'held that the fate.of Alsace-Lorraine, was not of sufficient . importance to warrant tho prolongation of thei struggle for a single day; that a way out could be found, by providing that the territory should be held by. neither France nor Germany but. should become an independent State —a "buffer State" .between ■ the' two countries. , This solution was advocated more •recently by tho "Manchester Guardian," and the proposal ied to a spirited reply being published jointly .by Abbo Wetterl'e (former Reichstag .deputy-). Alfred Weil (formerly Judge at Met?). Paul Wilmuth (president of the Association, Generale des Alsacien-Lorrains).:€harles Gerold (editor of the . "Matin," son of the Vicar of Strasburg),, F. H. Hollmer (advocate • in the' Courts of ' Colmar), F. Eccard' (advocate in Strasburg), and Anselm Langel (formerly deputy in the Alsace-Lorraine-Diet). In the course-of this protest these gentlemen pointed out that there w-e.sno doubt that the Frenih nation, which was primarily interested, was the nation which '. must estimate what lit considers just, and in this context the decision of the Government was to support French democracy in its efforts. There 'was nothing more just. "From all appearances, however," the protest went on, ' "the Alsace-Lorraine, question has a much greater scope. It is not.a question of simply giving to France the just.return for the prodigious sacrifices; to' which she'has agreed in order to save civilisation from Gehnamc domination, but it is. a question of repairing the grave-wrong which has been done to international law, or, as Lloyd George said, of 'removing an ulcer which has infected European peace for half a century.' These are the brutal facts. The population of two provinces which had_ attached itself to Franco has been forcibly detached from -France after a, war of conquest. This population has never ceased to protest against its forcible incorporation in'the Germanic Empire. The occupiers of the country have for nearly half a century treated it with . the violence .y.'hich is customary with them. Neither France, who could not forget this attack upon her honour and national integrity,, nor the people cf Alsace-Lorraine have resigned themselves to sanction tho act'of forco of which they were the victims. There is, therefore, in this case the flagrant violation by Prussia, who is used to such crimes as these, of the iright of nationalities to dispose of themselves. The Allies arc fighting for the freedom of Belgium, Poland, Bohemia, Serbia, Rumania, and the Irredentist provinces of Italy. On these lines they could not. bo disinterested in the fate of the people of Alsace-Lorraine, who not only do'not wish to remain German, but who have on all possible occasions expressed their desiro to become French again." Then follow the most potent reasons against the creation of a buffer State. "First, because the AlsaceLorrainers do not constitute one nationality as d 6 the Poles, Czechs, and the Jug'o-Slavs, and it would be truly dan-, gerous to create artificially a new nationality at a moment_ when the Allies will experience some difficulty in fixing the boundaries of the ancient States which will have to be revived. Secondly, because the Alsnce-Lorrainors, who a're principally interested in the question, do.not demand political autonomy and would for several reasons consider it extremely dangerous.