The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-14
R H | N LAND AND RUHR CAST LOOSE
German Government Prac- ticaIIy Admits She Can No
 Longer Support Them

BERLIN, Nov. 13.-(By the Associ- ated Press. .)-After permitting to go unchallenged throughout the day re- ports to the effect that the German government was about to proclaim an autonomous Rhineland and Ruhr state within the German federation, an official communication, issued to- l night, threw a strange light upon a secret conference which was in prog ress at the chancellery all day. Al the conference, President Ebert and Chancellor Stresen.ann and others of the cabinet discussed at great length with the premiers of the federated states and committee comprising Ruhr and Rhineland leaders the ques- ton of liquidating the economic chaos of the occupied zones. By indlrection the German govern ment, in its statement, virtually ad- mits it's inability to support" the Ruhr and Rhineland any longer, and today's action is considered as hay ing resolved itself into an abandon ment of those territories and leaving their populations to their own fate and at the mercy of the occupying powers.
 The official statement lays stress on the catastrophe social conditions resulting from increasing unemploy- ment in all lines and the general chaos which mas followed in the wake of the abandonment of passive re- sistance and the subsequent inability to arrive at a working understanding with the occupying powers with re- Spect to a resumption of industrial activities and the reinstatement of the German official civil service em- ployes.
 The German government declines to discuss the question of an au- tonomouS state. It declares that this is an issue which is wholly de- termined through the application of paragraph IS of the federal consti- tuition and that the question of such a state has no present bearing on the situation in the Ruhr and he Rhine- land. The statement issued tonight says:
 With regard to many reports abroad that an autonomous Rhine- land was to be proclaimed with the consent of the imperial government it Is stated in authoritative circles that the imperial government main- is possible win regard to alterations in the legal relations of the Rhine land and the Ruhr to the Reich.
 "The imperial government will never take any step in this direction and will never sanctio nthe permis- sion of Rhineland republic The only authority for any alterations in the relations of the Rhineland to the Reich is the constitution of the Reich"
 Since the foundering of the negotl- ations between the French author ities and the industrialists, the Der lin officials have realized the hope lessness of liquidating the situation in the occupied zones out of Ger many's own resources, and today's action, which in it's final analysis, is considered as amounting relin- quishment of German administrative jurisdiction and the withdrawal of financial and other support from the Rhineland and the Ruhr areas, is de- the only remedy at Germany's dis posal, unless she courts disaster for the rest of the country by attempting to salvage the Rhineland and the Ruhr in the face of Franco Belgian economic opposition and political re- sistance.
 Any attempt to stabilize the cur rency or to safeguard the renten- mark, which is to be put in circula- ton this week. Is considered ss doomed to defeat if the government Is called upon for further subsidies or unemploym doles In the oc- cupied areas and its position as re- flected by today's momentous meet Ing is that it has resolved upon the grim determination to hold France and Belgian morally and financially responsible for the welfare of the German people in the zones occupied by them.