Germany and the Saar

Inangahua Times, 14 November 1934, Page 1

Germany and the Saar

Mr G. G. Knox, chairman of the Saar Governing Commission, has written a letter to the Council of the League of Nations drawing attention to information obtained from, documents seized during the recent search of the Voluntary Labour Service under the Deutsche Front. One of the documents, a letter dated July 9 last, and written by one Peter Schaub, reveals that Herr Spaniol, Prussian Counsellor of State, and founder of the Saar Voluntary Labour Service in Germany, declared himself ready to

march into the Saar at the head of 17,000 unemployed in the Voluntary Labour Service,” if the result of the plebiscite were unfavourable to Germany. Although Herr Schaub disapproved of Her Spaniol’s threat on the ground that he had no authority to act in such way, he himself made the statement that

owing to the peculiar position of Saar Territory special measures are necessary, and those measures ean be taken only by persons who are, in the first place, old fighters in the Nationalist Socialist cause, and secondly, men of experience.” Moreover, the letter shows that the young men from the Saar in the German Labour Service are being given military training, which the German Government has officially denied. A confidential circular addressed by the German Ministry of the Interior addressed to local authorities in Germany gives instructions that persons entitled to vote in the plebiscite are to be

taken care of ” up to the day of the polling by confidential agents of the Federation of Saar Societies.