New-York tribune., 1919-05-26
German Protests
Denied byAHies
Notes to Peace Parley
Seek to Snue the Snar
Basin and Frontiers

The tert Of t,co protests by the Ger
man peace delegates at Versailles against
the Saar Basin and frontier terms of
the peace treaty, together a0ith the re-
ply Of the peace conference, through NJ
Clemenceou, aods made public last mioht
IN Washington.
The protests reveol that In an effort
to saue control Of tho Saar coal mtnes
to Germany Count pon Brockdorf-
Rantzau proposed that shares in Ger
man coal mines be issued to French
industries, Germany to retain control Of
the region. The request wus refused,
but precision aoas made 1ohereby Ger
many might accumulate gold to redeem
the Sanr Basin should the pebliscite
Uhich has been arranged for be il, her
fauor.
In response to protests against the
changes in the frontiers Of Germany. NJ.
Clemenceom declared that in no case
~ould the principle of self-deteymina-
tton be denied under the peace treaty.
. Protest on Frontiers
Count pon Brockdorf- -Rantzaus note
regarding frontiers follot0s:
versailles, May 13, 1919.
''From the German Peace Delegation to
His Excellency, the President Of the
Peace Conference:
"Sir: The German peace delegation
has inferred from the note of your Ex-
cellency, dated tho 10th instant, that
the allied and associated governments
L.
with constant thought of the principles
upon which, at the time, the arrnistice
and the negotiations for peace were
proposed The German delegation will
not, of course, cast doubts upon this
basis; they must, however, reserve to
themselves the right of pointing out
these conditions, which, according TO
their views, are inconsistent with the
intention of the allied and associated
governments Such inconsistency is
principally obvious with regard to
those conditions Of the draft Of the
treaty which bear upon the cession of
different parts of the territory of the
empire Inhabited by German
population
Apart from the restitution Of Al
sace-LoTTaine to France and from the
occupation of Kehl, which points re-
aerve to myself to treat later on the
temporary or permanent surrender of
the following fractions Of German
territory is required from Germany
the Ss'ar Basin, the districts of Eupen
and Malmedy, as we'll as Prussian
Moresnet, Upper Silesia, German dis
tricts of Middle Silasia, Posnania, West
Prussia and East Prussia Thn pro-
visians mads for the administrative
department lRegierungs berzirk) of
Schleswig, also mean In tho end a ces-
sion of parts of German territory
Question Allies Authority
The German delegation fully realizes
that for 4 number Of provisions on
changes in territory contained in tha
draft of the treaty of peare the prin-
cipls Of national dissemination
may indeed be assured az certain
groups of the population up to now
under German dominion, G. G., Poles,
lnnk upon themselves AZ non Germans
In the Schleswig problem, too, reasons
of nationality may be alleged, albeit
the German delegation cannot sec
whence the Allied and Associated gov
ernments derive the authority for
making the question of the boundary,
to be settled between Germany and
Denmark, an object of the peace nego-
6atinns- The neutral Danish govern
>rnent knows the present German gov
'ernmant always to have been ready TO
come to an understanding with 1t about
the new frontier corresponding to the
principle of nationality. In case The
Danish government should, neverthe-
less, prefer urging It's claims by taking