Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-03-20

moment compromise agreement re-
specting the Saar Valley was reached
by BRAND and Stresemann.
Within three months the present
French garrison is to be withdrawn
from the valley and the only allied
forces to be stationed there thence
forth will be a mixed railway de-
Tense corps" of 500. This body will be
kept as nearly invisible" as possible
and employed only under exceptional
circumstances. The council settled,
favorably on the whole to German
contentious, the veXed controversy
concerning German schools in Polish
Upper Silesia, the Polish spokesman
accepting the settlement handsomely.
Not less important than the council
business were side activities to which
certain council members addressed
themselves. Thanks largely. it is
said, to the friendly offices of BRAND
and Chamberlain, Foreign Ministers
Stresemann of Germany and Zaleski
of Poland reached an agreement on
a basis for reopening the broken ne
gotiations for a Franco-German COM
mercial accord" 1t would seem that
of late London, which has been wont
to regard the new Poland somewhat
askance and dubitatively. had sought
and obtained a footing of cordially
with Warsaw, and has strenuously
endeavored to effect a rapprochement
between Poland and the Reich and no
less one between Poland and Lithu-
ania. Most of the critics see Britain
promoting an alliance between Es-
thonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and
Rumania, to constitute an anti-RuS-
sian barrier from the Baltic to the
Black Sea.
The Russians talk shrilly of a
diabolic British plan to "encircle and
Stifie" Russia, and charge that Brit
ain aims to use the proposed alliance
(the idea thereof is as old as the
new map of Europe) as an instru-
ment of aggression. This, of course,
is nonsense, but the indications are
that Britain would regard a purely
defensive alliance of the border
states with benevolence; moreover
realization of the rapprochement be-
tween Poland and Lithuania, for
which she has been working, would
be essential to the effectiveness of
the proposed Gordon, and realization
of the rapprochement between Po-
land and Germany, for which she
has been working, would immensely
increase it's effectiveness, might in
deed almost be considered essential
thereto
But enter that kill-joy, that mar.
plot. Tchitcherin, foreign minister of
Russia, while the League Council is
in session. He persuades the foreign
minister of Latvia to initial a Russo
Latvian treaty which provides for
the neutrality of either country
should the other be attacked by
third. Consumption of such a treaty
would, of course, give the coup de
grace to plans for such an alliance
as that indicated above. To be sure,
the document initiated was only a
rough draft. and contamination of
Russo Latvian treaty is very
likely, but Tchitcherin pulled off,
something very clever, very Tchit-
cherinian, very disconcerting to GER
tain gentlemen in conference at
Geneva.
X y y i
Notes.-The entire Spanish floating
debt of some billion pesetas has been
converted into 50-year obligations at
3 per cent,
The present tonnage of the German
mercantile marine is 3,25O,000. as
against 100000 left to the Reich by
the Versailles treaty and the pre-war
100000. Forty per cent of the pres
ent tonnage consists of exceptionally
fine craft less than five years old, a
far higher percentage Of new craft
than any other merchant marine may
boast. The German shipping COM
panies plan a great expansion.
On the whole, representatives of the
German economy are rosy and in
creasingly so.
Italy has ratified the treaty of 1920,
by which the supreme council recog-
nized the union of Bessarabia with
Rumania. Britain and France had
previously ratified. Moscow is fur1-
Gus and blames Italy's action upon
British influence.
The following official statistics of
the recent earthquakes in Japan reach
us: There were 1924 persons killed,
6,734 injured. Financial loss esti-
mated at over 100000, 900 yen. Build
ings destroyed include 1850 factories
A ransom of $4,000 pesetas was
paid to the Moorish tribesmen of Rio
De Orc for the release OF Maj. LarTe.
Borges and his companion Uruguayian
aviators.
BumpsS crops are reported from Ar
gentiEA
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