TREK FROM THE SAAR

Taranaki Daily News, 13 April 1935, Page 22 (Supplement)

TREK FROM THE SAAR

46,(f00 PEOPLE LEAVING. CHILDREN OF THE LEAGUE. Our good thoughts go out to those many Saarlanders who are moving out from old homes td unknown new ones. It may not be necessary for them to make this move, but they are doing it, most of them, because they do not feel sure of what may happen to them if they stay, not being in favour of having Germany as a ruler. It is good news to hear of the kindness shown to them by the French at the frontier, and of the ' help in food, shelter and money provided by the French Government. Yet that Government feels that it is not really its affair, after the first immediate need has been met, for these refugees are unlike any that have ever been known before. They are international, the responsibility of all nations, not of one only. During the 15 years the Saar Territory has been under the League they have become in a way its wfcjscM. sag » sui? J ects oi a

country. This has been pointed out to the League by the French Government. “These are your people,” says its Note. “What are you going to do for them?” First Uere is the money question, for these thousands of people must be lodged and fed *and provided with means to support themselves, and the funds should come from the League. Next there is the business of settling them in work in France or elsewhere. Many of them are of French nationality and so can easily be repatriated; but Germans have crossed over the frontier also, for there were over 46,000 who voted to remain under League Government. No immediate action >has been taken ■by the League. The Note was presented only on the last day of the Council session and there could have been no earlier preparation, as it was not known that this exodus would take place. But a member of the Council has taken the subject in his charge, and a special Saar Committe was to give all the help needed by the Territory before it passed to Germany on March 1. The French Note to the League makes very clear this new thing in our present world, International Responsibility, a page in world history in which every nation has its part to play. _