ABOUT ALSACE

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 12 August 1914, Page 5

ABOUT ALSACE

zsjXf Sf.€s'""- S '~; There are several ranges o* h £ X?t no rxjmfc within the nrovi^! ,■♦ a ereat eWation. T\T<ti? rs?% importance s the 111 whir* f-fn • ? the Rhine a fw 2 c^of \rS a hundred miles, and i s navi^ bY h£ low Colmar. The hills are ~4 cr i'fv and rock-salt being wrought nit! nt. 1 here are considerable man.it*->-TK^'v Ye?V c?- V Of °°tton ™<1 lirien. The chief towns are Malhausen and Colmar in the upper district, and Strassburg in the lower. The province is traversed trora east to west ) .- the railway from Strassbura to Nanny md t«iv» uorth to south h.v the main lh e bet-vesn Basal and Strassbm .- Alsace fi.ifTered a C ood don! ia +J, a 1« ranco-Pruseian war of 1870-' The earlier battles of the campaign were ™u£, ht there: Strassbur 2 and other of its iortined towns were besieged and taken; and its people were compelled to submit to very severe exactions lne people, notwithstanding their German ormm showed a very strong feeling against the invaders, and In no part of France was the enemy resi-jt'e.l v.ith greater stubbornness. "It was evident from an early Period of tlio war, however, thnt Prussia was resolved to annex Alsace, to German territory. AVhen the preliminaries of peace came to h t di.sru&sed at Versailles in Febimaiy, 1871 the ees«;on of Alsaco. tom'tl-of with what ?s callfxl berman Lorraine, was one n? the earliest condition, ] a \ ( \ down by Bismarck and accepted by Thiers." Bismarck admitted the aversion of tho population to German rule, hut said everything po&siV.o won];! lie done to conciliate the ncoMfp. ?>fa;iv of the inhabitants of th>> conquered districts however, still cltuvt to "tho old connections, and on coMiember 30. 1872 — the day by whi^h "the people Were required to det^-nune whether they would consider themselves Gciman subjects and remain, or French . übjects and transfer their domicile to France —45,000 elected to bo, still French, and sorrowfully took their departure/