Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1920-02-12
Germans Protest They Cannot
Surrender War Criminals
for Trial by Allies.
SAY GOVERNMENT WOULD FALL
Council of Ambassadors May Con.
slider Some Modifications-Great
Fall Of Foreign Exchange May
Stop Exports-Results of
viseount's Grey's
Letter.
By EDWARD W. PIckARD.

1cTuduy 3 always 'eVlueuC lQUGuClOu
to evade as much of the Versailles
treaty as she could brought matters
between her and the allies to the crit
ical stage last week. The test of the
ability of the. allies to enforce full
compliance with the terms of the pact
comes up in the case of the Germans
who are accused of war crimes and
whose extradition for trial is demand
ed, In accordance With the treaty
which Germany signed. The list, com
prising 500 names, was handed to
Baron Won Lersner, head of the Ger
man delegation at Paris, for trans
mission to his government. lie had
been protesting, verbally and in writ
ing. against the enforcement of that
clause of the treaty, and finding his
arguments futile, sent the list back
to the French foreign office and re-
sigr:.l his post. The list was sent to
Berlin by telegraph. but the Berlin
government made it plain that it
would never consent to extrad;tion of
the accused. It's attitude was expressed
by NIlniser of Defense Noske, who
said: "The surrender of these men is
virtually impossible. Suppose l sue
ceeded iii getting the men arrested.
Do YOU think the train taking them to
France would be allowed to cross the
frontier? And if a crowd held up the
train. do you imagine that / could Or
der Germans shot down so that other
Germans should be handed over to
the revenge of their enemies? The
government might resign, but what
party could take its place."
Passive resistance, 1t was said,
would be the course followed by
Ebert's government. The Berlin press
agreed that delivery of the men could
not be made, and the general asser-
tion was that insistence by the allies
would mean the downfall of the gov
ernment and probable revolution.
The council of ambassadors in Paris
was sufficiently impressed by the
German assertions to consider a modi-
fication of its demands. Its plan as
outlined there was that Germany
should accept the list of offenders
and thus admit their culpability, and
that the allies should then consider
the exigencies of the situation.
AS for the former kaiser, his fate
seems to be either trial and punish
ment by the allies or exile from Eu-
rope. Sir Auckland Geddes, British
minister of national service and re-
construction, declared in speech at
Andover that the government intend
ed to put the former emperor on trial
and carry out whatever penalty was
provided; and he added that if Hol-
land persisted in giving him asylum
| 1t must put him on some island be
longing to it outside of Europe, for
the fallen ruler could not reside on
Dutch territory in Europe. There
| has been talk of trade embargo
against Holland to compel her to sur
| render Wilhelm, but it is not consid-
| cred likely that this will be resorted
| to by the allies.
Foreign exchange, which had been
steadily falling for some time, went
| down with a crash last week, and
! financiers of all calibers were thrown
into a near-panic. On American stock
exchanges prices tumbled fast and
holders of securities added to the col
lapse by dumping their stocks ant
bonds on the market. The causes ant
probable effects of all this must BIZ
left to the financial experts to tell
But one thing is made clear to every
one. That is that the high cost 0;