THE RHINELAND TROOPS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19405, 13 August 1926, Page 10

THE RHINELAND TROOPS.

News comes from Paris that the armies of occupation in the Rhineland are about to be reduced. The reference is apparently to French troops. There has been recently conducted in the German press a bitter campaign against the armies of occupation, more particularly against the British Army. Protests have been made against the strength of the forces and the number of houses requisitioned, and generally against what are alleged to be breaches of the undertakings made when the Locarno Treaties were signed. There is no room for doubt that this propaganda has a partypolitical rather than a national motive. It has originated in Berlin, the Rhineland press merely reproducing the Berlin papers' statements without publishing any complaints on their own initiative. The list of pilloried "injustices" includes "increase of troops in the British Army" and "oppressive measures of the British Rhine Army." Needless to say, these complaints are deliberate fabrications. How wildly fallacious they are can be judged from a comparison of the alleged strength of the British forces—variously said to be between 30,000 and 50,000—and the actual strength, which comprises 431 officers and 7607 other ranks, including men on leave or training in England. There have been sporadic attempts to stir up trouble between Germans and British in the Wiesbaden zone, but there is proof that the relations are as markedly friendly as during the latter part of the Cologne occupation. However, while British action has been unexceptionable, the French Army has not been reduced to the extent that was expected, for the two divisions in Bonn and Wiesbaden have not previously been recalled from Germany. The news now cabled indicates the removal of a cause of friction. This action should have good results in promoting Franco-German amity.