Evening star., 1917-10-14

bishop of Strasburg rose to declare that
their consciences forbade them to ask.
| In the name of the people, the union
of Alsace-Lorraine with Germany. This
was not all. When the German chan
cellor arrived in Strasburg the socialist
| Sudekum also appeared there. Sude-
KUN expected to obtain from among the
deputies of the second chamber sixty
! or so signatures to document con-
frming the Germanophile sentiments Of
the Alsatians and the Lorrains. His in
tention was to take this document to
Stockholm, and there to exhibit it in
| triumph at the international cen1er,
ence. But he obtained no signature and
| was obliged to content himself with the
declarations of the two presidents.
This however did not prevent the Ger
man majority socialists from stating In
Stockholm that 1t was the wish or
iAlsace-Lorraine to remain German.
| Since the outbreak of the war the
Prussian military regime applied in
A1sace-Lorraine has made OF that re-
| gion a second Belgium. Yet the Ger
man government in order to serve its
political interests, has sought to de-
ceive the world by intrigues. A plebis-
| cite, If honestly taken, that Is to say.
| taken free of military control, would
This at least is the opinion of the cor
respondent of the Basler Nachrtchten.
| Advise Giving Up Provinces.
| This question of Alsace-Lorraine is
| one that also interests neutral states.
| The Aargauer yolksblatt, a Swiss pa
per not suspected Of any special sym
pathys for the allies, recently addressed
| an open letter to the.Norddeutsche Allie
| gemeine Zeitung, saying, in part: The
| inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine have
never been German in the sense In
| which German bureaucracy today un-
derstands it Cannot Germany be made
| to understand that its renunciation or
| IAlsace-Lorraine would be the most de-
cisive step toward peace? Does 1t Sc
! riously believe that the friends or GER
( many of whom it VIII be in so much
| need after the war. can be won over by
its stubbornnesS? Never was govern
| ment, anxious for an honorable peace
caught in its own net as is the German
government. Cannot France, ana
| through it the entente. exact an noToF-
| able peace"
| In 1871 all Germans did not approve
of the taking of Metz and Strasburg
| rom France. Bebel, the elder Lieb-
| ergetically opposed the annexation OF
| IAlsace-Lorraine, a fact which even
| Schidemann cannot deny. A quarter
| of a century ago Frederic Engeis, the
friend and collaborator OF Kari MARX;
| wrote the following: German social
| democracy cannot exercise nor main
| tain its power without repairing the
| injustices Of which Its predecessors
| were guilty toward other nations. 1t
| must prepare the-~restoration of Po-
| land, now abandoned by the French
| bourgeois; 1t must place Schleswig-
| Holstein and Alsace-Lorraine in a po-
| sition freely to decide their political
1 future"
4 The only ones in Germany who still
| defend this viewpoint are the German
/ minority socialists.
Salt and Iron in Plenty.
| Fate ordained that Alsace-Lorraine
| should be one of the richest mineral
| countries in the world, producing vast
/! quantities of coal, iron, potash and
/ salt Germany draws from the mines
of Lorraine three-quarters of its total
} production of iron ore. Competent
| economists estimate that IL France had
I been able to lay it's hands on few
! square kilometers south of Luxem-
/ burg at the beginning of hostilities it
/ with IlIt II