FRANCE AND THE RUHR
Maoriland Worker, Rōrahi 13, Putanga 3, 17 Kohitātea 1923, Page 1
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FRANCE AND THE RUHR
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. The. hwasioi} of the Rijhr liy the armies of Poincarc is an infamy and a crime. It is just as much a crime as the annexation of French Lorraine by Bismavk, and it will have the same result— a war of revanche—if it is persisted in. How derisively the gods must laugh at this outcome of the glorious war for Ihe ''right of self-determination s '"! The Maoriland Worker condemns this latest move in the sterile tragedy of military conquest as a gross and monstrous insult to the German people and as an act of robbery by violence certain to prolong the agonies of the peoples of Europe and the world. To wrench a purely German province away from its Fatherland is as criminal as would be the "forcible annexation of Cornwall or Devon by a foreign power. The British capitalists also oppose it, but for an entirely different reason. They fear its prejudicial effect on some of their most important industries. In the Ruhr is one of the richest coal fields of Europe. "With this in the possession of France, French capitalists could compete the British coal trade with Europe off the map. Ruhr coal plus the iron ore of Alsace and Lorraine would also enable them to dominate the steel trade of the European Continent. The British steel industry would be paralysed. This question is one in which Xew Zealand farmers _ and workers have the closest interest. If French occupation of the Ruhr injures the British industries referred to, the unemployment problem will be intensified. If British workers arc out of work their demand for New Zealand produce will-cease, prices will decline, farmers will go bankrupt, workers' wages will be cut. There is only one sure way out of this brutal tangle, one sure way to peace—a drastic. Socialist reconstruction. And a means to this end is the study of foreign policy as it affects our daily lives.
