Evening star., 1923-02-20
Invaders Propose to Make
Visits Less Popular by
Exacting New Penalty.
GERMANS IN NEW NOTE
PROTEST EXPUL LSIONs
PoIncare Submits Picture of Occu.
patton Before Deputies-33s
High Officials Exiled.
BY A. II. DECKER.


ESSEN, February 20-cbance,lor
Iuno and several other German gov
ernment ministers have appeared one
after the other in the Ruhr territory
ana encouraged the local provincial
omcials to resist the French. Each
Visit has been made secretly and has
lasted only few hours, but on the
following day the newspapers have
carried columns of communications
from these ministers
To make the visits of the Berlin
statesmen less popular the French
propose to fine the cities honored by
ministerial calls. Saturday Herr
Groener minister of railroads, visited
Essen while the minister of the in
terror, Herr Severing, visited Dort-
mund. One French authority SAYS
lnat IL the ministers are recognized
rested, imprisoned and fined, but 1--WE
Will politely invite them to enter
automobiles and We will conduct them
to unoccupied Germany"
Blockade Is Tightening.
The French control of automobiles
and passenger trains Is not complete
enough to enable them to catch the
ministers, but the blockade is slowly
Tightening. Several border towns al
| ready have passport inspection posts.
Interest in the Ruhr region today is
concentrated upon Gelzenkirchen
where the French. forgetting to hunt
for coal trains. are busy collecting
the fine Of 1o0,0O0.00o paper marks
imposed on the city last week. Before
the rathaus twelve tanks are parked
under individual tarpaulins to keep
off the melting snow and sleet, but
the crews are nearby. There is u
strong Gordon of soldiers around the
town. halting all traffic and searching
for arms and money. Twenty million
marks In cash were seized in the city
treasurer's office along with $4,000, 900
marks in local paper money which is
| still in circulation but can be declar-
ed null and void by the city. council.
Twenty-one million marks were seiz-
ed at the Refchsbank and postal
| savings office, making s1,o0o.000
marks collected.
Soldiers Rob Paasersby.
Individual soldiers inspired with fine
collecting spirit on their own account,
held up passersby. Thus a Red Cross
worker was relieved of 1900 marks,
| and a locomotive engineer lost 10000
marks. Complaints were made to the
| French commander and the individual
hold-ups were stopped. A meet ng Of
the city council was held, at which a
| resolution was passed not to pay the
| fine because there was no assurance
that the French would withdraw or that
| they would not exact additional fines.
The French garrison was attacked by
one schupO. or security policeman, who
| came from Essen ito get a French
man." He shot q sentinel and was
| himself wounded and captured He will
probably receive the extreme penalty
| from the war court.
WAITS ARE CONTINUING.
BY the As, ,ciated Press.
LONDON, February 20.-Dispatches
from the huhr printed here today as
sert that the German cabinet ministers
continue to visit the occupied region
| in defiance of the recent order pro-
| hibiting their presen~s. 1t is asserted
that Herr Severing. minister of the
interior, and Herr Gr-ener, minister
| of transportation. were ~ecent visitors.
| have occupied the railw ay stations at
Holsterhausen anu Hetbvest, which
are situated across the Lippe near
| Dorsten-
One thousand striking railway en-
! ployes at Dusseldorf are reported
by the Daily Mails correspondent to
have asked for work. The requests
of 700 were granted.
NEW PROTEST SENT.
By the Associated Press.
BERLIN. February 20-The Ger
man government has sent a note to
the French. British and Belgian gov
| ernments and the Rhineland commits
| sion at Coblenz vigorously protest
| ing against the explosions of Ger
man officials from the occupied ter
ritories. The note also protests
against what Is described as the
| sions have been carried out.
| Former Chancellor Wirth has told
a meeting of center party members
at Ulm that the resistance in the
| gotiations. the Vossische Zeitung
says. The government. he added,
must be watchful 80 as not to miss
the moment when negotiations will
be possible.
33s OFFICIALS ExILED.
By the Associated Press.
! PARIS. February 20-An official
statistical picture Of the occupation
of the Ruhr was before the French
public today in the form of a state
| ment to the foreign relations commit
tee of the chamber OF deputies by
| Premier Poincare.
Expulsion of high German officials
| from the occupied region total 33s. of
| whom fifty-five have been Rhineland
| functionaries.
| Seventy trains a day are being
| operated in the Ruhr, whereas before
| the occupation the total was 1905,
divided nearly equally between freight
| and passengers. The premier assert
ed that the decrease was due ito dis
turbed conditions caused by orders
from Berlin"
French railway workers in the oc-
| cupied area number 9,S40, while
1925 cars of coal have been sent to
France and Belgium The yearly
| production OF the occupied district Is
| estimated at S0,000,000 tons.
The allies now occupy $500 square
kilometers of the Ruhr basin, COM
| prising all but 500 square kflometers
Il