EVACUATION OF THE RUHR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19086, 3 August 1925, Page 8

EVACUATION OF THE RUHR.

Tho withdrawal of French troops from the Ruhr brings to an end a situation that for fully two years and a-half has provoked international uneasiness. In sending forces into the Ruhr basin, on the right bank of tho Rhine, in January of 1923, Franco took a step on her own responsibility. She declared that it has no military significance. Her case for that plea was mainly expressed in the contention that, had a military purpose been in view, a better course would have been to enter the valley of the Main. Occupying that strip of territory separating Bavaria and Prussia, she would have cut Germany in two. Instead, she chose an area that is the principal economic centre of Germany. It is a densely populous and very active district, its six million inhabitants being engaged for the most part in tho "heavy" industries producing and using coal and.iron. Germany's default in reparations, during three years, was cited as justification for the act. The Reparations Commission, in terms of its instructions under the Versailles Treaty, had notified the default; and France held that this notification conferred on her the right to adopt her own measures to ensure deliveries of payment, in kind. Her troops—so,ooo were sent —were meant merely to protect her engineers, customs officers and forestry officials. All that she intended was declared to be "an amicable arrangement, a peaceful collaboration" with Germany's officials, so that the regular delivery of coal, coke and timber, and the collection of taxes imposed to meet reparation charges, should proceed. But from the very initiation of this action Germany treated. it as a hostile advance, prompted by ulterior motives, and the proposed "peaceful collaboration" proved impossible. An effective passive resistance, which France openly attributed to Berlin dictation,' was exercised against her, and the occupation proved the reverse of "amicable." Drastic steps were taken . against prominent German industrialists, and every fresh move created increased German bitterness. While sympathetic with the plaint of France that Germany's default had been deliberate and vexatious, the Allies were not prepared to endorse the French method of putting in the bailiffs. The ultimate outcome was the inquiry by experts into Germany's ability to pay, the reports of 'the Dawes and McKenna committees, the stipulation by the former that the integrity of the Reich should be a condition of a new arrangement for Germany's payment of reparations, and, particularly, the evacuation of the Ruhr. The significance of the withdrawal now completed is consequently twofold: it is the retracing of a step highly controversial and provocative, however ostensibly pacific, and the carrying out of a measure assuming the good faith of Germany's undertaking to carry out the revised provisions of reparation. The new order is now frankly established ; it remains to be seen how sincerely and thoroughly Germany will fulfil her share of the obligation attaching to it.