WILL BURY HATCHET

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 88, 8 January 1935, Page 9

WILL BURY HATCHET

Nazi Attitude If Saar Is Returned

MINISTER’S SPEECH

Former Residents Return For Poll FIRST VOTES CAST By Telegraph.—Press Assu.—Copyright. (Received January 7, 7.30 p.m.) London, January 7. The “Daily Mail’s’* Berlin correspondent says that 50,000 Saarlanders many of whom have sacrificed jobs in Japan. China, Africa, Australia, and America, are coming home for the .voting on January 13, according to a statement by Dr. Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda. “If the Saar is returned to Germany the greatest bone of contention could become the rftad to friendship,” he said. “We are willing to bury the hatchet once and for all.” On the eve of the plebiscite, a Berlin message states, all church bells in German territory bordering the Saar will peal for an hour, after which beacons will be lit'on the, surrounding hills and inhabitants of frontier towns and villages will assemble and sing patriotic songs. A further batch of 400 American Saarlanders has arrived in readiness to vote.

The first votes in the plebiscite were cast to-day when 2000 persons, including prison warders, hospital attendants, bus and tram drivers and conductors, and burgomasters of towns and villages, who will be on duty next Sunday, were allowed to vote. i

Speaking at the opening of the Saar Exhibition in Berlin, Dr. Goebbels emphasised that after the plebiscite the way would be clear for peaceful economic co-operation with France. The term “old hereditary enemy,” as applied to France, will disappear after January 13. Herr Rudolf Hess, Herr Hitler’s deputy, speaking at another of numerous demonstrations throughout Germany in connection with the plebiscite, said that it would have been more beneficial for the harmonious political development of Europe if France had accepted Herr Hitler’s proposal to restore the Saar to Germany without a plebiscite. “However, it is perhaps good that the world has an opportunity to see with absolute clarity to which nation the Saarlanders belong.” He expressed appreciation of France’s honest and successful efforts to eliminate everything that might have disturbed Franco-German relations.

Herr Neustadt Buerckel, Herr Hitler’s Saar Commissioner, announces that .he has made all preparations to assume control of the Saar by April 1. Those who lived in the Saar for the past three years and campaigned against Germany, whether entitled to vote or not, would receive the State’s protection as promised. Those who had not been in the Saar for three years and were not entitled to vote, yet campaigned against Germany, would be regarded as traitors and tried for high treason if they remained in the Saar after it became German again. He added that he took it for granted that the Saar Socialist and Communist Parties and their Press would be voluntarily dissolved after January 13, otherwise they would meet the same fate as in Germany.

RIVAL GATHERINGS

Nazis and Opponents

Saarbruckeu, January 6.

Thousands braved heavy rain aud snow to attend the rival demonstrations of the Nazi Front and the United Front, the latter opposing a return to Germany. Sixty thousand Nazi Fronters . marched to Wackenberg, where speakers urged a vote for Germany. The United Fronters demonstrated nearby. Weather failed to damp the enthusiasm of the Hitlerites, who were parading 100,000 strong, compared with the United Fronters’ 60,000. They trudged singing to band music through mud and slush, and spread themselves on the hillside under a forest of umbrellas and listened to their leaders’ prophesying a plebiscite majority for Germany. They dispersed as antiHitlerites appeared. Herr Braun and other Communist leaders broadcast speeches, and their followers swore eternal hostility to Herr Hitler. The behaviour of the crowds in the streets was excellent despite occasional sarcasms. The disorderly meeting on December 30 when Herr Imbusch was injured led to the arrest of* six German Fronters. .