ATTACK ON MEMEL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18299, 16 January 1923, Page 7

ATTACK ON MEMEL

— '..,♦. —■—-— ■•' ■ ■ ALLIES TAKING ACTION. PROTEST TO LITHUANIA. , WARSHIPS TO DEFEND PORT. By Telegraph Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 795 p.m ) . A. and N.Z. LONDON Jan. 14. Advices received in London state that • the leader of the insurgent movement i against Memel, in a commumnication to the French Commander, informs him that the whole district -surrendered without ' bloodshed, and thik hostility is aimed not at France or the Allies, but at the German " directorium,"..from which nonGerman members were recently withdrawn. ■ , "- The Council of Ambassadors at Paris has decided to. make representations to Kovno to ensure that- the Lithuanian Government will. arrest the movement against Memel, which is regarded as an attack on the Allied sovereignty. It has also been decided to send a French colonel to Memel to command the Allied troops. British and French Varships are . also proceeding to the scene. The Lithuanian Government has made an official declaration that the trouble is due to a local rising, which is described as a natural sequel to the " Germanisation " of the inhabitants in defiance of i the latter's wishes. This " Germanisai tion " policy is pursued by the so-called ; " Directorium " that the Germans established when they controlled the territory and has not since been modified.. The Berlin correspondent of the Times . -says that the Lithuanians are advancing in a style that suggests they are being led by military experts.