A GERMAN COUP.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16938, 12 January 1923, Page 5

A GERMAN COUP.

LONDON, January 11. The “Daily Chronicle’s” Berlin correspondent says: ‘ The transfer of the headquarters of the Rhenish-West-plialian CoaL Syndicate from Essen to Hamburg i.s highly significant. The syndicate controls 70 per cent of the German coal’. Rather than deliver this indispensable machine in German hands its owners have destroyed it. as it ceases to exist at the end of March. ‘This act,’ says the ‘Lokal Anzeiger,’ ‘nullifies the French attempt to throttle German industry. The work of removal was done in a single night. Tons of documents were removed in motor-cars to Hamburg, to a huge building which was empty in the morning. The newspapers hysterically applaud the so-called ‘coup.’ The Nationalist newspapers call on the railway workers to refuse to carry French troops, Customs officers to refuse to collect tolls. They also urge the Government to cease all reparations deliveries, and to break off diplomatic relations with France.”