Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-08-16
Geographic News
Bulletins By the
National Geographic Society
The Rhineland: Frances Collateral
For German Debts

The Rhineland: Frances Collateral
For German Debts
Frances proposal to take over pri-
waite plants and properties in Rhine
land and in the Ruhr district unless
prompt settlement is made by Ger
many of overdue debts to French
firms again calls attention to that
province which has aptly been called
the richest jewel in the crown of
| Prussia"
A bulletin from the Washington.
D. G. headquarters of the National
Geographic Society describes this re-
| gion which Is variously known as the
Rhineland, the Rhine Province, and
/! Rhenish Prussia.
The Allied Zone of Occupation
| virtually embraces this erstwhile
power plant and factory of the old
German empire" says the bulletin.
The rich deposits of coal. iron and
other minerals along Europe's busi-
est waterway, and the consequent
construction of railways in Rhine-
land combine to make this province
the foremost industrial area, for its
size, anywhere in the world.
THE entire Rhineland, before the
Peace Conference, was only a little
larger than the state of New Hamp-
shire. Peace settlements which cut
off from the Rhine Province the ple-
biscite area of the Saar Basin, and
coded Eupen and Malmedy to Bel
GUM reduced Rhenish Prussia by
nearly a thousand square miles. or
the portion remaining to Germany
by far the most important is that
known a. the Ruhr Basin, a part of
which basin extends beyond the
nd intn WaStnhalia
One Blow Already Fallen
"A blow to the Rhineland already
effected, though it has attracted lit
tie attention, was the decision in the
spring that work on strategic rail-
ways must cease. As early as 1870
Germany had nine railroads running
to the French frontier, and by 1914
three more had been added while
others were double tracked, At the
risk of imposing a hardship upon
German industries it was deemed
necessary, for the military protec-
ton of France. that further railway
activity of that sort must be sus-
pended.
Even the American, with his
knowledge of the mines of Pennsyl-
vania and the factories of Massa-
chusetts findssjt hard to conceive
the concentrated industrialism of the
Rhineland. 1t is the most thickly
populated section of crowded Prus-
STA. 1t has more large towns than
any comparable region of Germany.
1t averages seventy-fve more people
to the square mile than U own
thickly settled Rhode Island.
Wonder Story Of Krupps
"Coblenz, the headquarters of our
own Army of Occupation; Cologne,
of the British; Mainz and Wiesbaden.
of the French. are four of the not
town, Aix-ia-Chapelle, it's iron-city
of Dusseldorf, and its miniature of
Pittsburgh, Duisburg, are scarcely
less famed. The industrial shrine of
the Ruhr-Basein Is Essen, where the
wonder story OF the Krupp boom un-
folded, and where theSoutput Of big
guns and munitions in general has
been converted into a stream of To-
comotives, farm implements and al
most every other conceivable article |
of iron and steel, even to roller
skates. Only twenty-six miles south
east of Mainz Is venerable Worms,
the Rome of Professionalism, for
there it was that Luther defed the
famous Diet of Worms, the four hun
dredth anniversary of which was
SOACPk atSo w SAA~S
the world over last year.
ITO imagine this map speck
which is known as the Ruhr district
one writer to the National Geu-
graphic Society suggests that the
reader think Of the Pennsylvania
coal fields packed in this tiny area;
pour the combined population Of
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland,
and st. Louis; then take a flock Of
the biggest American steel mills and
railroad shops you can recall and
set them down along the Ruhr. To
complete the picture NIL in the gaps
with paper, silk and cotton mills,
glass factories, tanneries, dye, chem
ical and salt works. Such is the
much discussed Ruhr Basin, which
France turns to for a part of the
collateral for Germany's debts to
French private firms.
1.-The Ruhr Joins the Rhine at
Ruhrort, and all the Rhineland
province lies in the Rhine Basin Z
cept that very small part of the
northwest whose waters reach the
Meuse."