ALSATIANS RETURN

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21226, 24 September 1940, Page 9

ALSATIANS RETURN

WELCOME FROM CONQUERORS Peasants who were moved from Alsace-Lorraine to southern France last autumn are being welcomed back by the German conquerors, but reports reaching here say they are being informed by the Nazi authorities that by their return they “admit they are of German blood.” [This would appear to bolster previous intimations that Germany intends to take Alsace-Lorraine into the Reich. France lost the area in the Franco-Prussian war and regained it in the World War.]

Several thousand peasants, after travelling 45 hours in trains and buses, already have reached their farm lands near the Rhine opposite Basel. Reports reaching here from xilsace said that persons who owned farmlands and did not return to diem would be allowed a certain percentage of the value, up to 5000 French francs (less than £2O), and that there would be a limit on any personal possessions which tnc y could remove. Warning to Jews Jews may not possess farms and have been warned to leave the cities, it was reported. The Swiss Consulate at Mulhouse, in the affected area, is informing Swiss who returned to Switzerland they may go back to Alsace-Lorraine if they wisn. The frontier at Saint Louis, opposite Basel, was opened for six hours and all who seek to cross must provide proof of pre-armistice residence in Alsace-Lorraine. Paul Frorath, a director of the Alsace-Lorraine railroads before the World War, and since a director of the Saar and Palatinate Lines in Germany, returned to Alsace-Lor-raine recently and has been appointed director of the railroads there again.