Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-08-22
Germany Calls for Action.

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Throughout the acrimonious repara-
lions conference at The Hague the Ger
mans have maintained an impressive
silence. They pursued the theory that
1t was no business of theirs If their
creditors were unable to agree over the
division of the Young plan spoils. But
as September 1 approaches and the
storm raised by British Chancellor
Snowden fails to subside. the Germans
are sitting up and taking vigorous no
tice. BY that date, under the terms Of
the revised reparations plan, the final
evacuation of the Rhineland is to be-
gin. Herr Stresemann, the German
foreign secretary. and his fellow dele
gates at The Hague therefore refuse any
longer to view with equanimity the
chickering's and bargainings of the allied
representatives.
Burdensome as the Young plan obli-
cations are for the Reich, they sink into
relative insignificance alongside the Ger
mans desire for departure of the con-
ouerors armies of occupation. AS the
Young plan provides for evacuation as
an integral part of the new reparation
scheme, failure to adopt 1t at The Hague
would automatically, and indefinitely,
delay the disappearance Of allied troops
from Rhenish territory. Herr Strese-
mann accordingly demands that no
matter how long France. Italy. Belgium
and Japan care to squabble with Great
Britain over reparation percentages, the
pledged evacuation date be respected.
Germany, on her part, is ready to agree
that she owes, as from September /,
the reduced annuities Of the Young
plan.
The Foreign Policy Association has
just made public an arresting statement
by Pierrepont B. Noyes, formerly the
American representative on the Inter-
allied Rhineland Commission, which is
clcgaed with autocratic power in the
occupied regions.
Mr.. Noyes is an ardent advocate Of
evacuation. He pillories the mainte-
nance of the occupation as "pompous
futility" and ian expensive military
gesture"
In another striking observation, Mr.
Moves declares that mo man could pre-
vent the occupation from being eco
nomically burdensome and socially Of
fensive."
According to the Foreign Policy As
sociations statistics, more than $780,
1aav knA 1AryG FAr
occupation costs since the Dawes plan
went into effect at the end of 1924.
The United States only cut at the
reparations cake has been in reim-
bursement of the cost of our, limited
occupation of the Coblenz bridgehead.
Further available statistics disclose that
out of the eight billion gold marks adj
vanced by Germany to the PREPARATION
Commission by the end of 1922, two
and q half billion COR approximately
$500 100000 went to defray the ex-
pense Of occupation and Of control
commissions.
The Germans are pressing for evacu-
alton under clause of the Versailles
treaty reading: IF Germany complies
with all the undertakings resulting
from the present treaty the occupying
forces will be withdrawn Immediately"
The treaty otherwise legalizes retention
of allied troops in the Rhineland until
1895.
The French, who have long men,
cries where the Germans are concerned.
declare that the allied watch on the
Rhine" Is innocuous compared to the
iron control over Paris ordained by Bis
marck after the War of 1870. Nor have
they forgotten the long occupation Of
France after the Napoleonic wars.
They have in particular not erased
from their recollection the terrors and
tragedies Of the four years between
1914 and 1918, when the heel Of the
conqueror ground Frances easternmost
provinces into a humiliating and dew
astating submission.
France Is entitled to recall these
things, and yet, in the presence Of a
Germany living loyalty up to all the OBJ
legations she has incurred since YER
sailles, the world at large will sympa-
thize with the view that the time has
come to end what Mr.. Noyes calls "the
continuing war which military occu-
patton amounts to-
The architects of the Young plan
subscribed to that theory when they
formally christened it IAN indivisible
whole. e., a revised basis Of repara-
ton payments specifically inclusive of
Rhineland evacuation.