The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1919. AN INTERNATIONAL "WATCH ON THE RHINE"

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 151, 21 March 1919, Page 4

The Dominion. FRIDAY, MARCH 21, 1919. AN INTERNATIONAL "WATCH ON THE RHINE"

Ttt'o months ago a German civilian made a grim pun at the expense of his nation when he accosted a British soldier at the bridgehead of Cologne, on the Rhine, and said: "You have come to wind up the watch on the llhine."' This German civilian's words have swiftly become true. The German "watch on the Rhine" will be a thing of the past. One of the most recent cablegrams from the Peace Congress runs:—"The Commission of Control of International Waterways has decided that an Allied Commission shall control the future navigation of the Rhine." The German watch on the Rhine for the last two generations has been a bad business for Europe and the world, and the German watch will now end and give place to the watch of the League of Nations, who will safeguard tho peacc of Germany and the world. In older and better days the German patriot, viewing the Rhine as the frontier of his country, and piously _ seeking to guard it, could sing with touching sincerity The Watch on Rhine, but singers of that typo have not been heard in our day. The Germans in our time have viewed the Rhine not as their frontier,' but as their property, and they have sought to make the English Channel, and not the eastern side of the river, their boundary. At Niedenvald, on the Rhine,' opposite Bingen, there is - a concrete illustration of their aggressive Prussianism. On a height one thousand feet above the sea there stands The Rational Monument oj Victory, which cosf; one million marks, and was paid out of the indemnity squeezed out of financially bled-whitc France in 1870. On the basis of this monument, which is seventy-eight feet high, there is inscribed among- other things the words of the IVacht rim Jthein'songi and then above this basis there stands a colossal figure which gives the Potsdam interpretation of the poem. The figure is a monstrous female Germania in bronze, thirtythree feet in height, with a crown on her head and an immense sword of victory in her hand, and she seems to gloat over captured Lorwhich stretches before her in tho distance, and her eyes seem to covet the regions- beyond. The Ivaiscr turned the church bells of Cologne into shells, but he spared this monstrous statue, which to-day is a monument of Hoiienzollern failure, folly, and criminality. This decision to make the control of the navigation of the Rhine international is one oi far-reaching ■commercial importance, and, better than any buffer State, it will make for the peace of Europe and the safety of France. A Rhine watched over by the League of Nations can never be used as a base from which Germany can launch, westward armies of aggression. We have said that this decision of the Allies to control the Rhine is of far-reaching commercial importance, and this may sound like an exaggerated statement. To many of its at the Antipodes tho Rhine is of interest for its historical and literary associations and for its fine scenery. But in this industrial age tho commercial interests of tho Rhine, to those in Europe, overshadow all other interests. The- Rhine is one of the great waterways of Europe, and Germany's continued control would mean irritation and serious loss tb the commerce of Britain and to that of other nations. Since 1870 this great. river has run through the territories of three nations: through Holland from tho North 1 Sea to Eniincrich for 100 miles; through Germany to Switzerland 425 miles; through Switzerland to its sources in tho Alps MOO miles. Vessels of as much as 2000 tons can steam up the Rhine for 200 miles to Cologne, and river steamers, and barges towed by tugs, can go to the heart of Switzerland. Now, France, by regaining her old provinces, will have a great stake in tho river. This waterway is of great value to Switzerland, for her imports and exports can be carried tints at a lower rale than by any other route. For British product's, and for American grain, thero is no cheaper way of reaching the heart of industrial Europe than by this river. By improving the chauncl of the river it is estimated that tlie tonnage of its commcree might rise to 10,000,000 tons per annum. The Nineteenth Centura and After for January further points out that, "Switzerland has in pre-war times been described as the turning table of a great mass of Central European traffic. Her international railway routes, especially tho Golliard and Sim pi on, have vastly raised her importance as a transit country and as an European' clearing house." Germany has been living up to her evil reputation in dealing with this great waterway. By the Treaty of Vienna and other conventions she was bound to treat the river as a free highway for all nations, and had no right to exact toll, but she has done so to the annoyance and irritation of not only Holland and Switzerland, hut also outside connncrcial nations. As late as October. 19 1 S, the Dutch Government lodged a nrotesfc against duties, imposed in defiance of international law, on floods and passenger traffic on the Rhine. Had not defeat descended on Germany in this war she would have made the Rhine the scene of another act of wholesale lawlessness. Germany up till now lias had the domination in Europe in coal and iron, but she, has been deficient in electric power save that generated by coal. Her rivers run through a flat country, and she has no rushing torrents to produce cheap electricity. But her

greedy eye turned to the Whine on tlio Swiss frontier, and she planned, by t]jo construction of_ "barrages, lateral canals and locks," to get the cheap electricity she wanted. This would have meant interfering with the channel of the Rhine, and her make-shift canals would have delayed and obstructed the navigation. The action of the Commission of the Peace Congress has arrested this contemplated German act of .spoliation, and will make freo the Rhine to the commerce of the world.

This decision of the Commission marks a new cpocli in the history of the Rhine. If its banks could speak they could tell strange stories of the peoples that have lived within the sound of the murmur of her waters. Two thousand five hundred years ago the Celts peopled its shores, and they were displaced by the Teutons, 'who in their turrt were rushed back by the_ irresistible arms of the Roman legions. For 200 years Rome, held the land, and the memorials of her reign—her roads, bridges', and aqueducts—remain to this day. But again the Teuton was victor, swamped the Roman civilisation, and took possession of the river along a large part of its course. Time passed, and the ]wace of Westphalia gave France a footing on the left bank of the river, which she lost for a_ time, and now will recover. This river will now close an old chapter of its history. It will not have for its master either Holland, France, Germany, or Switzerland. It will belong in a sense to all nations. As its' waters flow into the great ocean so its life will now be mingled with the larger life of a world of nations.