THE LOST PROVINCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15807, 2 January 1915, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE LOST PROVINCES.

A DEBATABLE LAND.

HifiTOßL'.>:s will never agree -whether Alsace and Lorraine ought to bo considered originally as French or German. Since th<s days of the Romans lhey have been a debatable land, and French, Germans. Burgundians, and Austrians have straggled for their possession. Alsace, the southern part of the province, was so recognised, as a debatable land that it gave its name to "Alsatia,"' that part of the Whitefriars precinct outside the City of London which claimed to be free from arrest for debt, and La consequence became a reage for all the absconding debtor*, and broken men of J/Ondon.

The misters of Alsace and Lorraine in ancient times had been many, but the fact, regains that they had been French for nearly two centuries when they were dismembered in 1870 and converted into the now German province of ElsassLothriasren. Alsace was annexed to Franco by the Treaty of Ryswick in 1637, and Lorraine was in the Treaty of Vienna in 1735 handed over to Stanislas Leszczynski. the dethroned King of Poland, and father-in-law of Louis XV. •if France, -.vith the arrangement that on. his death it should pass to his daughter.

On "the death of the Grand Duke * Stanislas Lorraine, '.n 1765. became a part of France. After the French Revolution in 1789 tho Republic obtained some small additions of territory, including Mulhr.usen, which had been a small Republic allied to Switzerland.

The remarkable fact is that though the people of this belt of land, 145 miles long and varying from 24 miles to 105 miles in breadth, are mainly Germanic in origin, and speak a German, patois, they became solidly French in their sympathies. TJiey showed a strong feeling against the German invaders ?n 1870, and nowhere was their advance resisted with greater stubbornness

When peace was forced upon France. the annexation of the two provirces was one of its conditions, but for three years they were vested in the German Emperor, untß tho Federal Council of the Empire was established in 1874.

By Sept-ember 39, 1572, the inhabitants had to decide whether they -would renain as German subjects or remove into France. . It was a bitter struggle, but on that day 35,000 Alsatians decided to adhero to France, and left their homes. Those who remained in the provinces did not alter their preference for France, and the German army has constantly had to complain of affronts and insults offered to it by the civilians of the " conquered provinces."

The feeling of the people is shown by the thousands of young Alsatians who enlist in tfie French Foreign Legion.. They cannot be admitted into the French .army because tiisiy. in German territory, but they are accepted for the Foreign Legion, and form i) 0 per cent, of : ts strength, besides contributing some of its best nancommissioned officers.

In the sands of Algeria:, in the swamps of Tonkin, and in the jungles of Dahomey and. Madagascar the Alsa&ans of this strange force have fought with reckless courage for the tricolour flag that was ence that of their fathers.

With- regard to the provinces themselves, the German Government has en- ' couraged . German immigration iato . the provinces, and no doubt it has its partipans: But the German military excesses have ; been sufficiently brutal to repell .-. even their partisans. . 'The character- of the German administration is illustrated by the fact that excursion . parties returning from France were threatened with imprisonment for displaying Frenc% flags.