ALSACE AND LORRAINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XL, Issue 1777, 17 January 1918, Page 2

ALSACE AND LORRAINE.

GERMAN newspaper comments concerning Alsace-Lorraine, published in 1870, deserve to be recalled at this moment, when the same and other German newspapers declare (hat the restoration of. Alsace to Franco would be an abandonment of German soil, and can never bo countenanced. The Frankfurter Zeilung, in its issue of August: 17th, 1870, said; —“The annexation of Alsace-Lorraine is shrilly demanded by a section of National Liberals and National Democrats!, The powder acts as an intoxicant on the democratic parlies. They invoke the brutal right of conquest, and hardly trouble to dissimnlatc.their claims. They do not ask, ‘What do (he Alsatians and Lorraincrs say? Do they wish to become German or remain French?’ ” The RheinischoWestfaelischc Zeitnng, on the same dale, said; “The Question of a. French cession of territory is very difficult if we do not merely wish to assert the right of conquest.” The Zukunfl, on September. 18th, 1870, said: — “They tell us that AlsaceLorraine must he taken from France. There is no surer way of turning the coming pence into an armistice until the moment when France will have recovered sufficient strength to claim the restitution of (he territory which we are Inking. The most jingoistic Teuton will not dare lo pretend that Alsatians and Lorraincrs are yearning for the joys of German rule.”