WAR CRIMINALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19498, 5 June 1925, Page 7

WAR CRIMINALS

VON HIXDKNBURG’S ACQUITTAL LONDON, May 16. The President of Germany, Field Marshal von Hindonburg will visit the occupied zone on June 18, which will be the 1000th anniversary of the annexation of the Rhineland by Germany. Diplomatic inquiries were made bv the authorities in Berlin whether the French would arrest von Hindnnburg, because he had been included in the Allied i.st of war criminals, but the French Government announced that it would not interfere with him, as his acquittal by the Leipzig court had closed the incident. President von Hindenhurg and his friends are stretching historical facts just a little in claiming for “Gcrmanv” the annexation of the Rhineland a thousand years ago. At that far-off time there were in the territoiy noiv known as Germany, five nations, the Franks. .Saxons, Bavarians, Swabians and Lorrainers—the rulers among them being the 1' ranks, the descendants of those who had conquered the land and founded the empire which rose to its zenith of power under Charlemagne. But with the death of Charlemagne in 814 ended the stability of the vast structure ho nad raised. A thousand years ago the ruler was Henry, Duke of Saxony, an üb.o and warlike prince, who made important conquests over Danes, Slavs, and A lagyars, carried the boundaries of the Umpire beyond the Kibe and acquired Lombardy,