Evening star., 1925-11-22
FRANCE GAINS ADVANTAGE
BY EVACUATION OF RHINE
Frees Future Trade Negotiations From
Handicap of Hatred, Bred by Alien
Uniform on German Soil.

on the Rhine or seeking to dominate
Germany industrially. With control
or the Ruhr and the lower Rhine, Ger
many resumes mastery within her
own home. Retirement from por-
ton of the Rhine barrier insures re-
tirement from all below the Lauter,
the Alsatian boundary, because the
value Of the barrier in the military
sense depends upon occupation Of all
of It,
once, however, a portion Of the
Rhine barrier Is surrendered. what
practical use to hold the rest? Hav-
ing quilted Cologne, why should the
allies stay in Coblenz or Mayence?
Not to insure German payments OF
| reparations. because the question OF
reparations has been removed from
| the field of military enforcement By
| the Dawes plan. Not TO insure SeCu
| rity, because Locarno is, in itself, an
| undertaking on all sides to maintain
| security. IT was the conception OF
| those who made the Treaty Of Yer
| sailles that. by providing for the occu-
| patton Of portions of the Rhineland
| for varying periods lasting in the ex-
| treme case TO 1885. France would
| have 10 years of security, of guarantee
| against any new German attack while
she recovered from the last.
No Time Limit Set.
| But at Locarno a guarantee without
| time limits was substituted for the re-
| stricted assurances of Versailles. Ger
| many renounced the attack upon
| France for all time and Britain un-
| derwrote the immunity. What addi-
tional security does France have, then.
| by preserving forces of occupation in
| Coblenz' or persuading the British to
| keep skeleton establishments at Wtes-
| baden? No one with even a minimum
| of intelligence believes that Germany
| is meditating attack in the next ten
years, after which the forces Of occu-
patton will disappear; why keep them
| on German soil then?
| In fact, the arguments are all the
other way. AS long as French troops
| stay on German soil. no matter how
| carefully incidents are avoided, their
presence Is a humiliation and eXasper-
| alton and can lead 10 collision. The
| armies are no longer an insurance
| against attack, they are rather guar
| antees Of the survival of German re-
| sentiment. They do not give protec-
ton, but inexorably provoke passion
| Bismarck recognized all this and with
out argument Withdrew the German
| occupying troops from the north OF
France in advance of the time fixed.
| when France had paid her indemnity.
| also in advance. The reason for oc-
| cupation terminated with the pay
ment. the dangers continued.
Merely as a matter Of logic. then,
acceptance by Germany Of the Locarno
/ pacts must involve the winding up of
the watch on the Rhine as our sol
diers used to describe 1t. At Locarno
il may we'll be that promises did not
go to this extent, although II Is GER
tain that promises were made thal
after the treaties were ratified the oc-
| cupation should become ''invfSjble
and innocuous, that numbers ShoN,d
be reduced and activities limited. BuN
all these pledges, explicable because
doubts and hesitations still remained.
are inadequate when Locarno passes
into the law Of Europe.
Trade Bargaining Point.
We are, then, almost inevitably
bound to see within the next II
months a very long step taken toward
freeing German soil from foreign sol
diers 1t may well be that the actual
evacuation will be used as a bargain
ing point on both sides. France and
Germany have been deadlocked over
commercial treaties for more than
year. The difficulties are frankly
stated to be even more political than
economic. French iron and German
coal are in the nature of things bound
to be combined as they were while
Lorraine was still in part in German
hands.
| Tomorrow, when these commercial
negotiations xare resumed, what more
inevitable than that the Germans
should suggest that concessions which
the French demand in their own in
terests should be made contingent
upon evacuation, while the French on
l c{an Cho nc{c fhaf
ton depends upon concessions? In
reality both are ready to negotiate,
but the Germans can much more
easily persuade their Parliament to
make tariff concessions If they insure
territorial liberation while the French
can Justify withdrawal by the report
of material benefits acquired in re
turn.
The main thing is TO bring the occu-
patton to an end No country will
quite settle down to peace, to the re-
nunciation of resentments, while the
| uniform of q recent enemy expresses
on its soil the fact of q recent defeat.
Invariably the victor has resorted to
this device to protect his victory and
insure his payment. The allies of 1914
stayed long in France after Waterloo,
and the Germans after Sedan. But
. they stayed only until their job was
done. With Locarno accepted, the job
of the allies of 1914 in occupation is
finished. e
But even the evacuation of the zone.
would not remove the causes of irri+
tation and the menaces to complete
adjustment There is still the Sarre
Basin to liquidate. Here France has,
under the treaty of Versailles, certain
present rights, and she has in adds
ton the advantages. theoretical adj
vantageS, incident TO a plebiscite In
. 1896 to determine whether the Sarre
shall be German, French, or remain
what it now is. a ward of the league.
Finally the coal mines are French out
right, although Germany may buy
them back If the Serrois vote to re-.
; turn to the Fatherland.
) Germany VIII Get Sarre. i
There is not, however, one sensible
Frenchman who dreams that the re-
suit Of a plebiscite would favor
France. Something like unanimity is
indicated when the plebiscite takes
place, and Germany VIII be the victorg
If @ century and more ago parts OF
the Sarre, like Sarre-Louis, for exam
pie, were passionately French In symr
pathy, as they had been French ius
nationality for long decades, century
of unchallenged Germany possession
changed all this Sarrbrdcken is as
} Loyalty German as Konigsberg itself. n
What earthly reason, then, to pro-
long the existing situation. which is
| a cause of irritation, distrust, anger,
which keeps the League of Nations
| in perpetual uproar? Much better to
find some basis of bargain here as in
the case of the remaining Rhineland
, zones, to clean up the whole Rhineland
mess in one bargain. Today renun
l ipio in, alIra iol