THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1919. A RHENISH REPUBLIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17178, 4 June 1919, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4, 1919. A RHENISH REPUBLIC.

i The proclamation of Coblenz, th capital of the Rhine province, a capital of the new Rhenish republic indicates that this profoundly im portant, movement has taken dell nite shape. Unfortunately the cables have not yet indicated th< direction of popular settlement it the territory affected, and obviouslj this is everything. Berlin reports suggest that tho separatist movo ment is supported in commercial and financial circles, but it will be disappointing if the will of. the people is not behind it. The Allies have had it within thoir power to separate the Rhino province from Germany by force, but although this proposal was discussed by tho Peace j it was rejected on the ground that it would violate the Rhinelanders' right of self-determi-nation. A separation ostensibly spontaneous, but originating primanly in the economic pressure which the Allies are well able to bring to bear, would be open to the same objection, but a people's movement would be unexceptionable, and would be hailed with delight in every allied country, but especially in France, as affording the ideal solution of the Rhine difficulty. It will probably be found, when the full facts are known, that the Rhenish republican movement is partly economic and partly popular. Financiers may hope to escape responsibility for the German war

debt and to be treated more lightly than other Germans in the matter of reparation, and business men may well wish to cultivate the goodwill of the nations whose armies will hold the watch on the Rhine for several years. But apart altogether from motives of self-interest it would be strange if the hearts of the people were not turning from Prussia, which has commanded their following for a hundred years, and has led them to defeat and invasion. The Rhinelanders are not confirmed in the Prussian tradition, which with them is of comparatively modern growth, nor are they of the Prussian type. From the dawn of history their province has been debatable ground between German and Celt, and though France has now neither racial nor linguistic right to it she has historical claims upon its sympathies. The spirit of the revolution spread far beyond the Rhino and Napoleon conquered the river. From his time there dates a French legacy of liberal institutions and good roads, which have both been factors in Rhenish prosperity. The Rhine province, having tried both democratic and Prussian forms of government, may now choose the former.

j The abandonment of Prussia by the Rhine province would bo an event certain to influence history. Those who realise how deplorable the hegemony of Prussia has been for the German States would hope to find in it the beginning of the dissolution of the evil spell which has been cast over them. As a first result the predilection of Austria towards union with Germany might be weakened, and as a second result the dissident tendencies of Bavaria and Saxony might be revived. The roots of Prussian authority are not deeply embedded in the past. A little over half a century ago most of the German States fought with Austria against Prussia as a common enemy. Their allegiance is based upon the military superiority of Prussia. In destroying that tradition the Allies may have severed the ties that bound the German Empire. Time will tell whether or not Pnissianism has been disposed of in this manner, but the immediate results of the separation of the Rhine Province present no such problematical aspect. To France a Rhenish republic spells security. It provides the glacis of which Bismarck prated in 1871. It assures her that if ever the Prussian beast springs again he will first have to leap the Rhine, and that any future war will be decided on German and not on French soil. It is still the constant pre-occupation of every Frenchman that he belongs to a nation of 40.000.0.0 that his enemies number some 65,000,000, and that there is no natural frontier between them. The Rhine is the frontier to which every French soldier from Marshal Foch downwards aspires, but the French nation is unwilling to sow dragons' teeth by attempting to annex purely German territory. The creation of an independent buffer State under the League of Nations is the solution favoured by French statesmen, and if it should prove realisable it will provoke a sigh of relief from a heroin but sorely-tried nation.

Apart from the additional security which will be afforded France by making the Rhino the German frontier, her anxieties will be lessened by the decrease in German power resulting from the defection of the Rhenish republic. Tt is not without reason (hat the Rhine province claims the title of the " richest jewel in the crown of Prussia." The province is the most thickly-populated portion of Prussia and the chief manufacturing district of Germany. It is rich in minerals and rich in the transit facilities offered by its great waterway. Aix-la-C'hape!]e is one of the most important of German coalfields, and the iron field of Dusscldorf, o n the right bank of the Rhine, and that near Coblenz, now in American occupation, contribute materially to the manufacturing power of Germany. Zinc is produced near Cologne, now in British hands, and Aix-la-Chapelle. The

other minerals of the : province in- . clude vi copper,';, manganese,-' vitriol, lime, gypsum, and slate, and tho manufactures are * iron and 'steel, metallic wares, cloth,7 silk, ; cotton,, linen, dyes and leather.; J The cables have' not defined the extent of tho, hew Rhenish republic, but probably it is bounded by the Rhino, and, therefore, excludes part of tho Rhine,province.'.; It-;will nevertheless' comprise a large and immensely wealthy industrial district with a population of between 4,000,000 and 5,000,000, interposed in the shape of an irregular triangle between tho Rhino and Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg and Alsace-Lorraine, and guaranteeing to Belgians and French at least some brief warning of any future German attack.