The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1923-02-06
ALL EUROPE TOTTERS;
NATIONS FACE CHAOS
CONDITION RESULT OF THE
FRENCH MOVE. INDUSTRIAL
LEADERS PUT IN JAIL.
THE INVASION IS COMPLETE

Belgian and French Add to Seized
Territory, Con6scating Mines, Rail
ways, Banks and Forests. Germans
Resist Passively.
The economic warfare now raging
in the Ruhr district of Germany be-
tween the French and Belgians on
one side and the Germans on the other
threatens to plunge all Europe into
chaos, according to British observers,
who are following the French attempt
to force the collection of reparations
from Germany with the greatest in
terest.
British officials assert that every
card the French and Belgians have
played has been losing one, pointing
out that the results thus far have been
purely negative, the only benefit be-
ing to Great Britain in increased coal
orders from Germany. limitations by
Italy that England should act as me-
diator in the reparations dispute have
met with little favor in Great Britain.
France Is Aggressive.
France is Selling state mines, coke
ovens, forests and banks, arresting
German officials, collecting customs
and increasing her area OF occupied
territory. The Germans are following
out a program of non-co-operat1on and
passive resistance which is greatly
hampering the French. Strikes are in
creasing in seriousness, and the rail
Situation is critical
The financial situation in the Ruhr
is causing great apprehension, and the
possibility that France may issue
standard currency to replace the mark
is causing considerable uneasiness to
Berlin, for it is realized that, should
such a thing happen, Germany never
again could pass the mark as the Of
fetal form of currency in that district.
The French have obtained nearly 100,-
100000 marks by their seizures of the
Mayence, Dusseldorf, Bingen and
Dortmund branches of the reichsbank.
Strikes Prove Serious.
The refusal of German workers to
aid in the mining of coal and the NOV
ing of trains is not only serious for
the French, but affects the workers
themselves as well, as they have thus
thrown themselves out of work at a.
time when prices are steadily mount
ing as a result of the occupation.
Strikes were called in virtually all of
the privately owned mines as soon as
their officials, refusing to cooperate
bv orders from Berlin, were arrested
by the French.
1t is reported that only about ten
per cent of the trains are running and
these are manned by French crews.
Engineers and firemen are being rush
ed to the Ruhr from France to avoid,
if possible, a complete tie-up OF the
transportation system. The Berlin
government has forbidden the canal
employees in the occupied territory to
tow any coal barges seized by the
French, or to open sluices Tor their
passage.
Should the stoppage of railroad SER
vice continue, with the tying up OF the
waterways, martial law will be de-
clared by the inter-allied Rhineland
commission, it was said at Coblenz.
Such step is considered imminent,
A suggestion for an American pro-
tectorate over the Ruhr is meeting
with favor in Berlin, although no Of
fetal step has been taken in such
direction.
Telegraph and postal rates have
been trebled and the railway fares
doubled. 1t now costs 1850 marks a
word to telegraph from Dusseldorf
to London, and 900 to Paris, while
the postal rate on letter from Dues
seldorf to Paris is $50 marks. Hotel
and restaurant rates in the occupied
territory have virtually doubled.
To Continue Resisting.
With more than 20 of her leading
industrial kings of the Ruhr region in
iail at Mayence the Germans are real
ling that the French are in earnest
in their seizure of the Ruhr, but there
is no sign of any retraction by the
Germans from the stand of passive re-
sistance they have taken. The prison
ers are being held as political prison
ers and are being shown every con-
sideration by the French.
The invasion of the ,Ruhr has served
to draw all German parties more
closely together and has resulted in a
unifcation, it is said, which could
have been gained in no other way.
Chancellor Cuno is determined in his
stand that Germany shall pay no fur
Their Preparations to France as a result
of the "unwarranted invasion"
The French report they have re-
ceived information that more than
10000 employees of the SHINES Gelsen-
kirchen works have been organized
along lines similar to the Italian fas-
cisti, with commanders and legions
ready to oppose the occupational au-
thorities with force if so ordered. The
report that the German government
was contemplating the reintroduction
of compulsory military service, which
is forbidden in the treaty, of Versailles,
has been officially denied by the Cuno
cabinet.
WI. NI - IL