FINE DEMANDED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 January 1929, Page 5

FINE DEMANDED.

FROM GERMAN INDUSTRIAL MAGNATE. , FRENCH THREATEN TO USE FORCE. . ited Press Association—By Electric Telegraph Copyright.) (Australian Preaa Association.) BERLIN, Jan. 9. There has been a storm of protest throughout Germany at the issue of a warrant at Metz demanding a £120,345 fine and law costs against Dr. Roechling, an industrial magnate. At Saarbrucken a French military court in 1919 condemned Dr. Roechling to ton years’ penal banishment from Saar and a fine of 10,000,000 francs, on the ground of his exploitation of French mines in German occupied territory. Later France and the German Government by special agreement quashed the conviction, but the French did not abandon their claim to the fine, which they are, now demanding with interest. The authorities at Metz are threatening to use force- to compel its execution.

Dr. Roechling protests that the demand is 'characteristic of the French; they talk peade and keep up the greatest army in Europe; they/ sign the Kellogg Pact and spend milliards in armaments, he says.