San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-02-13
Nation Is Entirely Conf
dent Of Success in
Ruhr Invasion.
COAL A MINOR FEATURE
Predictions OF Failure Are
Based on Misunder-
standing Of Intent.
by PAUL SCOTT MOWRER
Special Cable to The San Antonio Light
and the Chicago Daily News.
Copyright, 1928.

Paris, Feb. 13.-The Fernch gov.
eminent and French opinion are firmcr
than ever as regards the Ruhr Occupa-
ton and entirely confident of its ulti-
mate success.
Reports from British and German
sources of the failure" of the French
occupation are considered here to be
based on a misunderstanding of the
French aims. II is true that the
French hoped and still hope TO get
coal from the Ruhr in large quantities.
but German resistance has made this
impossible perhaps for several months.
The principal French aim, however.
was not a few thousand tons of fuel
more or less but 10 n final repair
ations settlement with Germany by
using the Ruhr occupation as n r:,ans
of political and economic pressure.
From the larger points of view it is
almost matter Of Indifference to the
French government how far the Ger
mans prolong their resistance for, in
the first place tie decline of pr .Iuc-
ton in the Ruhr basin is certain TO in
jure Germany far more than France :;
the longer the Germans defy the open
ing Of negotiations woth France the
less likely it becomes that France will
evacuate the Ruhr in the near fu-
ture.
A Gage Of Security.
Putting things at their worst and
Supposing that France fills to force
the desired reparations agreement.
then the chances are that she will
keep the Ruhr indefinitely on the sup
position that without it Germany
would be unable to undertake a war
of revenge and Frances security
would be assured. This. as one French
writer asserts, lis well worth 100,-
francs"
For all these reasons the best in
formed French circ.es are unable to
see how France cal possibly lose in
the present struggle with Germany.
The boycott started by the slopkeep-
erS, hotelkeepers, restaurants and cafes
against the French in RecklinghauSen
last week has spread to several cities
such as Witten, Bochum and Hernc
Today the boycott is beginning in Es-
sen where the proprietor Of the Waller
restaurant where twenty French Off
GERS and the French commissioner, NJ.
Costa, habitually eat, announced that
the French will no longer be served.
Just what measures the French in
tend to take is not known, but if mess
rooms are inaugurated, German society
will lose its principal pastime of visit
ing the restaurants patrOnized by the
French, the men scowling with hate
and the women gazing with uncon-
.ealed curiosity. Pe.haps the French
will adopt the same tactics as with the
telephones, that is cut off the service
when the telephone girls refuse to
rive numbers when wanted. The res
aurants which refuse to serve the
French will be closed as were some of
he shops which refused to sell to
French buyers.
Germans Claim Food Shortage.
This boycott is a German mancuvcr
n the economic war against the
French army of occupation, but the
excuse is given that the shortage of
food is caused by the lack OF tram
service. The Germans claim that the
milk supply has been cut off from 30
300 liters tone liter equals l.. quartsl
10 $500 liters a day. The French
claim that on Saturday 81 French
trains entered the Ruhr and 76 left.
They say that if there is a shortage of
food trains it can be traced to the
lack of cars and locomotives, these
having been sent out of the Ruhr be-
fore the French advance.
In Hcrne the boycott IS so serious
hat the French have ordered the cur
few hour to begin at 8 p. m.