THE RHINELAND.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18024, 20 May 1930, Page 6

THE RHINELAND.

The last foreign soldier is to leave German soil. After twelve years of occupation the Rhineland is to revert to its pre-war status, and the remaining obstacle to Franco-German rapproaohment removed. This has been brought about no less by the advent of liberal government in France in succession to military minded conservatism, as by the acceptance of the Young plan by Germany. President 1-lindenburg, himself one of the old Junkers, in face of fierce opposition on the part of the old guard of German nationalists, and against his own personal feelings put self and personal inclinations behind him, and agreed to the Young plan in' the realisation of the fact that it was in his country’s interests to do so. How well his intuition served him is proved by the fact that immediately on the heels of ratification France is to withdraw. To that country the Young plan banished the fear, however imaginary and nationally engendered, of an attack by Germany, and this paved the way to reverting to the ante helium status quo. France, after the war of 1870, honourably fulfilled her obligations to her northern conqueror, and now that the position is reversed there is no reason to doubt that the new Germany will discharge her debts to the world at large. By the irony of fate Germany, who launched and lost the war, and Britain, the victor, who carried the other nations on her back to victory, are the two countries to suffer most financially from the holocaust.