BRITAIN AND SAAR

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 297, 13 November 1934, Page 7

BRITAIN AND SAAR

PROVISION OF RECRUITS. TO AUGMENT POLICE. EXPLANATION IN COMMONS. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received November 13, 11.10 a.m. RUGBY, Nov. 12. Asked in the House of Commons whether British ex-offioers were being recruited as police officers for the Saar and, if so, on whose responsibility the recruitment was taking place, and whether it was being done with the sanction of the Government, the Prime Minister (Mr Ramsay MacDonald) said the position was that, acting under a resolution adopted by the League Council on June 4 last, the SecretaryGeneral of the League had recommended members of the League on September 3 to facilitate the task of the Saar Governing Commission in recruiting additional personnel outside the Saar for its police force during the plebiscite period.

lii response to this recommendation, a number of applications for employment had been received from ex-officers and forwarded to the Saar Governing Commission after a preliminary enquiry on certain particular points, such as previous police experience and ability to speak German and French, the intention being to eliminate useless applications. Replying to further questions, Mr MacDonald said suggestions that the recruiting was being conducted secretly by either the Foreign Office or the War Office were absolutely untrue. The figures given him were not, he believed, the very latest, but showed that of about 20 ex-officers recruited only two were of British nationality, the rest being from other countries.

A NEWSPAPER REPORT. ATTITUDE OF BRITAIN. LONDON, Nov. 11. Tlio Daily Mail understands that the British attitude regarding the Saar is not fully revealed. Well-informed diplomatic quarters believe that if was Britain who originally asked France whether she was willing to provide troops because she believed that the life of Mr G. G. Knox, chairman of the Governing Commission, was endangered. Britain sent four members of the Scotland Yard staff to guard him.