LABOUR'S WEEK-END TRIP

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 46, 23 February 1923, Page 6

LABOUR'S WEEK-END TRIP

ONLY WAY OUT OF DIFFICULTY INTERNATIONALISE THE COAL. (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.—COPIMGHT.) (AUSTRALIAN - NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 21st February. Four Scottish Labour members of the House of Commons, after a wqe.k-end in the Ruhr, report thai there are no queuas of unemp-grea nor outward sign* of poverty noticaafcle w die Hulir "There seems to be a higher standard of comfort ih&D in Scotland," state th* visitors. "The German people strongly resent tfr*> occupation ww Uiwe has been little personal violence The French soldiers are very nervy All Germans favour the retention of the British forces on the Rhine, and alt are confident of defeating the aims of France, the German miners believing that the French will evacuate the Ruhr in three months in disgust, but this view is not entertained by other Germans.

"Among the French people we found that the desire for safety, which occupation cives, was stronger than the desire to possess the Ruhr coal deposits, but permanent occupation is impossible, as it would be an Ireland multiplied by fifty. If France succeeded in capturing and working the Ruhr, she would become the military monarch of Europe and oust Britain from the steel markets of the world. Already Prance regards Britain as a friendly rival, and would not accept Britain as mediator between France and Germany. The only way out of the difficulty is for France, Garmany. Britain, Belgium, and Italy to internationalise the Ruhr coalfields."