FRANCE AND GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19000, 24 October 1923, Page 7

FRANCE AND GERMANY

SEPARATIST MOVEMENT. FRENCH DUPLICITY DISCLAIMED. EUHE SITUATION SERIOUS. Association —By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, October 22.+ The Paris correspondent of The Times savs: “Apparently the idea of Irance is to" keep a ring around the Rhineland. Should the Separatist movement develop whore the French flag flies no brutalities will be allowed.-. That is how Le lemps summarises the prospects.” The trench newspapers deny that the Separatist proclamation was due to French machinations, as the Germans allege. They say that the local population are tired of being used _as an instrument of revenge against 1 ranee. The French Government was not aware what was about to happen. Nevertheless, anxious voices are raised as to what will happen next. Some of the newspapers now seem strangely to be appealing to the Ruhr industrialists to rescue not only Germany but France, m the Ruhr, where a catastrophe will happen if the labouring masses are thrown upon French hands. Everything indicates that France is unable to cope with the perils which are developing, and uneasiness increases. The Cologne correspondent of Ine Times writes: “If the Trench intended to support the ex-pugilist, Herr Matthes, the Rhineland Separatist leader, they could not have selected a better moment. The Rhinelanders are like sheep without a shepherd as a result of the imprisonment or expulsion of the true leaders. Unemployment, hunger, and anxiety nave reduced them to a frame of mind in ■which they will not resist whatever action the French, with the support of French troops, are disposed to approve; yet today’s events are almost certain to result in bloodshed. The situation is most serious. Many iron and steel works have dismissed their employees. The French have seized more mines and a number of railway workshops.'’ The local German authorities attach no great importance to the leadership of Herr Matthes. They do not believe that this ex-pugilist has been selected as the future ruler of Rhineland. It is more probable that Matthes, with the co-opera-tion of the French hotheads, is trying to steal a march on his rivals, such as Dr Dorton, and thus force the hands cf the French authorities.” —The Times.

SIMPLY AN ARMED COUP. THE PEOPLE APATHETIC. BERLIN, October 22. (Received Oct. 23, at 9.40 p.m.) Advices from Aix-la-Chapelle state that the Separatist “putsch” is rapidly extending because the population are too cowed to resist. I here is no enthusiasm and not even the pretence that the movement is popular. It is simply an armed coup. The situation is confused anc’Jthe future is black, but 100 disciplined police with a free hand could dispense the usurpers.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE NEW MOVEMENT. REVOLT AGAINST ATTITUDE OF BERLIN. PARIS, October 22. A message from Mayence states that before the coup d’etat at Aix-La-Chapelle the Bourgeois Party was won over to the movement. The clergy also expressed sympathy and the working classes as a whole are rallying to the new order. Le Temps, commenting on the Rhineland movement, says: ‘Tt is a spontaneous reaction of the population, which refuses any longer to be oppressed and exploited as a weapon against their Western neighbours. Berlin and Munich did not care whether the Rhineland inhabitants were trampled underfoot in the struggle. The essential thing was to use these territories as a base against France in the central policy of revenge. A Mayence message states that the Separatists entered the town, where they were fired upon, and withdrew to the outskirts of the town. They had two wounded. The Paris' newspapers emphasise the necessity of France not intervening m the Rhineland Separatist developments, though they declare that Berlin will not be allowed to make reprisals. The Echo de Paris declares that the British zone must be closely watched on account of the existence in Cologne of a centre of anti-French propaganda,—A. and N.Z. and Reuter Cables.

COMMUNIST DISAFFECTIONS ARMED POLICE) FIRE ON CROWD. BERLIN, October 22. (Received Oct. 24, at 0.30 a.m.) Advices from Aix-la-Chapelle state that serious disturbances have broken out, m the course of which the schutz-polizei fired on the Crowd of Communists who were pillaging the shops. The town of Busbach is reported to be on fire. —Reuter. SITUATION IN BAVARIA. TROOPS STAND BY PROVINCE. MUNICH, October 22. The Bavarian troops have taken the oath of allegiance to Bavaria till the end of the present conflict.—A. and N.Z. Cable. UNREST IN SAXONY. CLASH WITH TROOPS. BERLIN, October 22. Troops of German cavalry, when entering Meissen (Saxonv) were fired on from a window. The soldiers returned the fire. Street fighting ensued, in which a number were seriously wounded. The local leader of the Communists was arrested.—A. and N.Z. ' Cable.

A CABINET CHANGE. BERLIN, October 22. Count Kanitz has resigned from the Nationalist Party in order to join the Government as Minister of hood. —A. and N.Z. Cable. THE NEW CURRENCY. PEOPLE UNLOAD MARKS. LONDON, October 2. (Received Oct.‘23, at 7.35 p.m.) The Daily Telegraphs Berlin correspondent says that although the rentenmark will not be issued until the middle of November the people expect that the flood of the new currency will sweep away the paper marks, so those who have more than they need for their daily wants are converting the rest into something ot lasting value at any cost. Hence there is an extraordinary boom on the stock market and a rise in the price of food and other commodities. It was almost impossible to get bread in Berlin on Monday. The bakers refused to supply anyone unless they put down their names in the morning and paid in advance. The bakers asked five milliards of marks for a loaf.— A. and N.Z. Cable.

FEELING IN AMERICA. FINANCIAL CIRCLES DISTURBED. A GERMAN-AMERICAN APPEAL. NEW YORK, October 22. (Received Oct. 23, at 7.35 p.m.) On Monday morning the markets reacted very appreciably to the news of the German Separatist movement in the Ruhr and Bavaria. The foreign exchange felt the effect very sharply, the pound sterling reaching 4.49 cents, die lowest level since November, 1922. The franc and lire also dropped by several points. The mark reached 44 billion to the dollar. Industrial and commercial stocks were generally lower, German and American being very much stirred by the Separationist news. • The United German Societies, representing 7,500,000 German-Americans have issued an appeal to their members to help Germany in her hour of peril and provide adequate financial assistance to set Germany upon her feet before she disintegrates. A city newspaper, in an editorial, dwells on the uncertainty of the outcome of the establishment of the new republic, and indicates that France will probably find that she has created a Frankenstein monster when she encouraged the Separatists.—A. and N.Z. Cable.