THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1935 MINORITIES IN THE SAAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22008, 15 January 1935, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1935 MINORITIES IN THE SAAR

In the name of Hitler, an official intimation has been given to Communists in the Saar that, in the expected event of the territory's reunion with Germany, they will be assured of protection. Only those Jews that have been actively antiGerman, it is explained, need be uneasy ; the rest, even if they have voted against Germany, will be welcome to stay—without the constraining hospitality of concentration camps. It may seem ungracious to look this gift horse in the mouth, but the time and the manner of the gift make it suspect. That the promise of clemency to opponents is made immediately prior to the League Council's consideration of its decision on the future sovereignty of the region —the vote itself is not to do more than give the Council information assisting it to decide —is significant. The Council is under obligation to care for the safety and welfare of minorities, and its habit is to treat this obligation very seriously. There is not a word regarding minorities, it is true, in the Covenant of the League, but responsibility for their protection was laid upon the League by a series of treaties between the Allied and Associated Powers, on the one hand, and various European States, on the other, in 1919 and 1920. The vital clause in all these treaties is that under which it is explicitly declared that the undertakings in relation to minorities "constitute an obligation of international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations." Practice has followed precept: there is a special section of the League Secretariat, together with a sub-committee of the Council, for the consideration of this matter, and the work haß been done so regularly that now the League's right to intervene, whenever circumstances seem to call for intervention, is acknowledged and unquestionable. The work is not easy, but it has never been scamped. Germany has been among the nations insisting on its being thoroughly performed, as in the instance of minorities in Poland. Without distinction of race, language or religion—so runs the principle—there shall be enjoyment of civil and political privileges. This principle has already been applied in the Saar, where local assemblies, schools, language and religion have been preserved during French occupation and the regime of the Governing Commission. Knowing full well that the Council is morally bound to note the presence'' of any considerable minority when giving its judgment, Hitler is evidently eager to give beforehand assurances that are calculated to facilitate its handing of the whole territory to Germany. The motive of the announcement, it sterns, is tactical. Hitler wants the whole of the Saar. "Not a kilometer, not a millimeter, of German soil!" has been for some time a Nazi slogan raised against the idea of partition, an idea that is expressly included in the possible verdicts of the Council. By the terms of the peace treaty, Germany agreed to renounce sovereignty of any portion of the Saar in favour of France or of the League "as the latter may deem necessary." But now the German Government scorns the idea. A few days ago Herr Braun, Socialist leader in the Saar, declaring that if the vote favoured Germany 50,000 people would want to leave as refugees, asked that the Council should "split the Saar and make an area on the left bank of the river a refuge for Saarlanders who have voted for the status quo." Should the Council decline to do this, he said, he would appeal for transportation funds ; he added that 4000 Jews were making their own arrangements to quit the territory. Any considerable exodus would be as severe a blow for Hitler's prestige as a considerable vote against Germany. So he has apparently inspired recent offers of "pardon," made through Deutsche Front newspapers to all opponents, and this latest intimation by his Saar Commissioner on his behalf repeats the offer in more definite terms. Why this haste of public promise, in contradiction of earlier threat after threat of reprisals against all daring to vote in opposition, if there be no intention to win from the Council, if possible, a decision of total acquisition of the territory in the face of a considerable minority vote? The Council has a clear legal right to decide on partition, and its moral duty to care for minorities is unquestioned ; therefore, to persuade it to trust Germany with the whole is a shrewd course.

This course is not likely to succeed should the minority vote be large. For one thing, the Council cannot very well ignore the persistent Nazi attempts to browbeat voters; those attempts speak louder than this promise. And the announcement made by the Nazi Commissioner a week ago hardly agrees with the present promise: then he said, in connection with & somewhat similar

promise, that those resident in the Saar for less than three years and not on the register of voters, but participating in tho campaign against Germany, would be tried for high treason if they remained after the territory had reverted to Ger many. Herr Buerckel then said also that the Socialist and Communist parties in the Saar would be expected to dissolve; otherwise they would meet the fate of those parties in the Reich. This sinister candour made the associated promise of clemency worth very little. As a totalitarian State, Germany permits no political parties other than the one endorsed by the Government, and the implication for the Saar, once it is reincorporated in the Reich, was clear. So with the present promise. It goes further than any previously made—for reasons related to the pending verdict of the League Council—but it has the same sort of sinister qualification: Jews actively anti-German have reason to be "uneasy." In the light of all that has happened under Nazi dominance in Germany, this qualification is ugly. There is not the slightest guarantee that it will be limited to such Jews: and the Council's task is not really made any easier by the maladroit attempt to justify a neglect of the rights of minorities.