The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1927. THE SAAR QUESTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 March 1927, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1927. THE SAAR QUESTION.

Of all the problems created by the Peace of Versailles, the most difficult and dangerous—so far as Germany and ' France were concerned—says an exchange, was the Saar question. By way of compensation for the deliberate destruction of the northern coalfields of France, by the Germans, the Allies decided to allow France to draw her coal supplies for a time from the Saar basin. This rich mineral district lies to the north by the Lorraine and south of the occupied Rhine-land. By the treaty its mines are ceded to France “in full property,” so that the dispossessed German mineowners had to seek compensation from their own Government. Naturally, the loss of this valuable mining area lias been a serious grievance with the Germans ever since the war. But the cession of these coal deposits to France was not the only ground for resentment. The territory as a whole—its inhabitants being chiefly German—is coded to the League of Nations, which has appointed a special international commission to manage it 'Hie Saar basin is included in the French Customs’ Union, it must not lie fortified, and its people are not to he liable for military service. Further, its language, religion, and local government are to be maintained. After lo years the people of the Saar may decide by plebiscite whether they wish to belong to France or Germany. If, on a poll conducted by the League of Nations, tbe Saar reverts to Germany, the German Government will have to buy back the coal mines from France and to allow her special rights of purchase. All this is. of course, very irritating, and humiliating to the Germans. But the feature of the oocupaaion that they felt more keenly was the continuous presence of a large body of French troops, authorised to cnrrv out the conditions of the treaty. France, knowing all about German military preparations, and the unshaken ascendancy of the Junkers, who are still preaching a war of vengeance,

cannot allow her hold upon her eastern frontier to he loosened. But alter long negotiations, the intervention of the League of Xati ;ns has secured a modification of the original treaty terms. The troops in occupation «iro to he reduced to the dimensions of an intermiti mal police force, and the French troons now in the Saar are to he withdrawn in three mouths’ time. It says much for the growing i nil nonce of the League of Nations that it has been able to induce the parties involved in what threatened to be a most dangerous quarrel to accept this peaceful and reasonable compromise