EVACUATION OF THE SAAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20669, 15 September 1930, Page 8

EVACUATION OF THE SAAR.

What has been done at Geneva in connection with tho evacuation of tho Saar Basin reveals a very promising spirit of international friendliness, particularly between Franco and Germany. The arrangement by which France has had possession of tho coal mines in the region, and consequently cert ;> in territorial rights and transport facilities, enforceable by military means if need arose, was made in recognition of the loss France had suffered through the destruction of mines in her northern districts by Germany during the war. This arrangement was to remain until ]()! if), when the resumption of the mines by Germany was to have financial conditions attached, these to bo the subject of expert and impartial decision; the inhabitants of tho region were then to decide by plebiscite whether they would have French or German rule, or come indefinitely under governance by the League. In the meantime, a commission of the League has supervised the arrangements. There has been, as in the Ithineland, a mingling of friendship and friction, the people of the territory being little affected by the political rcstiveness manifested in official German circles. A moot point has been the teaching of French in the primary schools. This was introduced in 1922, on the recommendation of a number of h'aar educational authorities ; it has been entirely optional, parents being frco to refrain from entering their children for the course or to withdraw them at the end of any period of six months; the teaching has been done by Germans and tho manuals have been written specially for the district and in a spirit of absolute neutrality. In a frontier district, where relations between the two neighbouring peoples have been constant, and will remain so, this "provision has been wisely made, but nearly all the political parties in Germany issued a manifesto early in last year warning parents not to allow their children to attend the optional lessons. This action induced the governing commission to send an explanatory letter to all the primary schools iir the territory. In the episode there has been evident the German eagerness to safeguard national interests, and since then negotiations to end the regime of occupation before the end of the stipulated term have been conducted, though without avail, between the two countries. In the reaching at Geneva of an agreement to withdraw, within three months, the French troops guarding the railways—they were sent to ensure unhampered transport for the coalthere has been hastened the last of the steps toward a complete restoration of territorial conditions in Germany to those obtaining before the war.