EVASION OF PEACE TREATY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 121, 16 February 1920, Page 7

EVASION OF PEACE TREATY

DELIBERATE GERMAN EFFORTS A BIG CAMOUFLAGED FORCE AVAILABLE ALLIED PRESSURE NECESSARY (By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright (Rec. February 15, 5.5 p.m.) Paris, February 13. General Diessel, ex-commander of the Allied Mission in the Baltic, speaking before the Foreign Affairs Committee, declared that both official and non-official Germany was making every effort to evade the Peace Treaty. The Government had refused to supply the Allies with information regarding disarmament and man-power. General Diessel said that the German defence troops comprised 300,000 men, while the security police numbered 100,000, consisting of former officers and non-commissioned officers, who, in case of need, would constitute excellent army cadres. This police force possesses heavy artillery, machine-guns, _ tanks, and aeroplanes. All 'munition factories in Germany are being carefully camouflaged. General Diessel concluded 'by saying: "The German Government will only carry out the Treaty if it feels the Allied hand at its throat."—Aus.-N.Z. Cablo Assn. THE SCAPA~FLOW SCUTTLE VON REUTER HAS NO REGRETS. (Rec. February 15, 5.5 p.m.) Berlin, February 14. Admiral yon Renter, in an interview, states that he does not regret that he ordered the sinking of the ferimm fleet at Scapa Flow, wluch spared the Fatherland the humiliation of handing the vessels oyer to the enemy. His secret instructions were distributed to all the warships by a British postal boat and the censorship did not detect the code. He declares that he ordered the sinkings ■when he read the peaco terms, as he considered a resumption of war inevitable, for he did not imagine that Germany would accept such terms.—Aus.N.Z. Cable Assn.