"IT IS PLAIN WAR"

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 88, 13 April 1923, Page 6

"IT IS PLAIN WAR"

OCCUPATION OF THE RUHR AS A RESIDENT SEES IT (JROM OUR OWN COItKESPOVBMT.) LONDON, 27th FebiTar;\~V A private letter from the Ruhr received in London and published in "The Observer" throws some light on the Geri man attitude towards the occupation. The writer incidentally speaks of the "transport," which, it may be explained, is a scheme whereby children on leaving school are sent for a few months into country districts to work on farms and get good food before returning to the town to begin work. "I wonder if you understand our condition here at all," says the correspondent. "It is no new occupation—it is plain war. For instance, yesterday we walked; calmly through the main street; suddenly out of the post office (in which they have troops) armed soldiers with bayonets rushed, threw down everybody in the street, shot a few shots, and retired after this brave act. .Or in Wanne, our children's 'Transport. wr3 peacefully sitting in several compartments going in the direction of iiiunster; suddenly the ■ train stops, wilt shouts, soldiers appearing at the doors tearing out everybody, babies and mothers, tumbling between them with bayonets, knocking the guide down, and driving everybody out of the station. Several people, among them our own children, got a nervous breakdown —no wonder. Beaaon of all this? Nobody knows. To-day two Quaker ladies, English and American, cam* to see me; they were quite sure it is war, and really they were far more excited than we are. I am always wondering how long our men will stand this. The English here are full of admiration; they say they never saw people showing their utter contempt with more personal courage and dignity than our workmen do. . .

"Quito a lot of our friends have been already 'ausgewieeen'—that is, in the middle of a pitch dark night the French throw them out of their motor cars and put them on the road;' the families have to go four days afterwards. It is not safe to wall? alone at night, that is, in our part of the town. I think it is safe, but in town they are always firing and 'clearing' streets with bayonets. Wa all have the impression that they are extremely afraid ; you never see one soldier alone, always two and two, and an officer Jb always followed by three armed men with bayonets. The jeering and shouting of the people whenever they change guards is astonishing, Essen surely is utterly unimpressed by military, ceremonies. . . . Milk and fat is the worst thing here; that is, the first is not to be had, and the second very scarce and frightfully expensive. Before the French came meat, for instance, was 900, now it is 6000-8000 (marks), and leather (shoe soles) went up in the same degree. The butchers very often will only sell fat if you are buying meat too. T really do not see how a great many people are getting through with a lot of children." i A NOVEL SUGGESTION. As Frenchmen frequently admit when discussing- the question of the occupation of the Ruhr, the most critical moment for France (says a.Paris correspondent) ■may" well -come"when."Germany, yields, and a decision has to be taken as to the best way of securing for the iuture the advantages whioh it is believed the operation- will bring. It is at present.most difficult to obtain even an indication of what is-in the Franco-Belgian mind on this subject. A novel solution which has lately been put forward is published iii the "Oeuvre." It is that the Ruhr and the Rhineland should he constituted as a buffer-State, to be directly administered "by the League of Nations. The result of this would'be not only to give the League a real home of its own in. a dominating place in Europe but to bring under its control the district which has the greatest potentialities for causing further wars, on account of its capacity for producing armaments. The idea at the bottom of the mind of the author of this project is that the mere possession of the Ruhr, with the power of steel and coal that it brings, constitutes in itself an encouragement to its possessor to Become a dominating force through war or i threat of war. Whatever the' ultimate solution of the Ruhr occupation may be, I there is, however, in the meantime, no | indication, that the French Government has in any way moved from its original detei-min&tion that any proposals which j Berlin may wish to make must be communicated direct to the French Government by the German Chancellor. GENERAL SIR A. GODLESS , REPORT. General Sir Alexander Godley, in his latest report, has emphasised the impossibility of conceding the French demand that French military coaches should bo attaehad to ordinary trains, as well as run in special trains, or offered by him to General Payot. Acceptance of this demand would meet a virtually unlimited use of our zone by the French; would complicate matters by mixing up th» German civilian with the French military element with possibly untoward results; would increase the peril of sabotage, and require on our part infinitely greater precautions against its occurrence. There is a limit to what ca.n be expected at this juncture of a German personnel employed on such a task. General Godley, however; has offered to base the standard of facilities to ba offered the French, not on,the number of trains, but on that of wagons. This should Diake for elasticity. As to the talk of intervention at this stage, it ia noteworthy that to an AlIjedf diplomat who visited him last week M. Poincare restated what he had n'ready stated to the British Government, namely, that France would regard any such intervention as an unfriendly act.