FRENCH COUNTER-MOVE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18323, 13 February 1923, Page 7

FRENCH COUNTER-MOVE.

INTERCEPTION OF WAGES. BANK FUNDS SEIZED. MORE TROOPS ARRIVING. DANGER OF FAMINE. By Telegraph— Association—Copyright. (Received 9.5 p.m.) Reuter. PARIS. Feb. 11. Reports from Dusseldorf state that 30 textile factories at Barmen and Elberfeld have closed owing to the stoppage of coal deliveries. Thirteen arrests have been made at Mayence, including the director of the local branch of the Disconto' Gesellschaft for supplying money to strikers. A sum of 200,000 marks deposited in a bank at Treves as a fund for strikers has been confiscated. Reuter's agency reports that the Allied authorities in the occupied zone seized l 61,000.000 marks sent by the Disconto Gesellschaft to Mayence for strike pay-' ments, also securities valued at 200,000,000 marks sent by the bank to Hamburg en route to America. ■ The French have expelled Herr Heanish, a former Cabinet Minister, who had just been appointed Commissioner, of the Rhineland. A French and Belgian Note informs Germany that as Herr Cuno's visit to the Ruhr provoked dangerous excitement, German Ministers will be allowed no longer to enter the Ruhr.

Export Embargo Imposed.

The Belgian Foreign Minister sent the German Charge d'Affaires a Note stating that in consequence of the orders of the German Government to officials in the Ruhr, and the disturbances which the German Government is trying to cause there, the French and Belgian Governments have decided not to allow-, metallurgical and other products manufactured in occupied territories to be exported to the unoccupied portion of Germany as from February 12.' The Germans have ceased work on the railways . throughout the zones occupied by the French and Belgians. French troops continue to pour into Dusseldorf, and orders have been issued to provide billets for 16,000. The Germans declare that as a consequence of the cessation of traffic 4,000,000 people will shortly be without food. A message from Essen state* that the French have informed the Germans that another division of French troops will shortly arrive in the district. Eight hundred more Polish workmen are going to the Ruhr at a daily wage of 50,000 marks. Polish engine-drivers earn 18,000 marks an hour. It is announced in Brussels that Belgium is increasing her efforts to expedite the railway services and more railwaymen are being sent to the Ruhr. France's Heavy Price for Coal.

The Dusseldorf correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states that if the French had not occupied the Ruhr they , would have received over 2,000,000 tons of coal in the last month. As it is . they have collected only 70,000 tons at a cost of 35,000,000 francs, involving the employment of an army of 50,000 men. " France is thus paying the preposterous price of £7 a ton. The economists have completely failed in their task, which is now left to the military, who find the situation practically hopeless. The railways are paralysed and the rivers and canals idle. Small groups of French raiders are now invading the streets of Essen seizing all the coal they come across, whether it be a waggon-load going to a factory or a small handful the miner is taking home. The inter-Allied High Commission have suspended a number of newspapers for periods varying from a fortnight to three months for publishing articles fomenting resistance to the Allied orders. M. Poincare and M. Jospar, Belgian Foreign Minister, have decided that frequent conference of French and Belgian members of Cabinet are necessary. M. Poincare is to visit Brussels on Monday.