Evening star., 1934-09-09

Saar Plebiscite in January {
Full of Dynamite for Europe
Steel and Coal Dominates Area, Mines
Belonging to France in Compensation
for Those Destroyed During Var.

forest of chimneys, a city of cottages
around castle, landscape of red and
yellow hills-Hermann Roechlings
stores of iron ore. Hermann Roechling
rules this town. He makes steel and
iron, rails and artificial manure and
is an important factor in politics
and the German secret service. An
imposing looking man, with saber cuts
across one cheek and dimple in the
other, he is Hitler's most powerful
plenipotentiary in the Saar.
Customs Unit Since 1919.
Over Neunkirchen, with its vast mills,
rules Otto Wolff. A Luxembourg firm
controls the great works of "Abed" and
at SaarlouiS are the glass and ceramic
factories owned by the Villeroy Boch
family, to which belongs the wife of
Franz Won Papen. Since 1870 these
works have been tied together with the
supplies of Lorraine. From 1870 to
1919 they were one customs unit and
were German. Since 1919 they have
been one customs unit and Franco
League. After January 13, 1895 -?
On coal and iron and subsidiary
industries 80 per cent of the people
of the Saar depend for rent. food
and clothing. These people are SIM
pie, hard working Catholic Germans.
In SaarlouiS, to be sure, there are
many French names, but the present
descendants all speak German. Ninety
seven per cent of the whole popula-
ton would call itself German and dur
ing all the fifteen years of League ad-
miniStration has felt itself, however
remotely, part of the German Reich.
Sometime, they knew, they would
have to face the ballot box and al
ways they suspected that they would
have to pay something for the return
of their German citizenship
Under the League of Nations ad-
ministration they enjoyed period of
unparalleled prosperity. Until 1925
they had free trade on both sides.
During the German mark imitation the
Saar coal miners were paid in good
gold francs and bought from Germany
pianos, bathtubS and gramophones
When Germany erected customs bar
rler, the great Saar industries still re-
tained many special export privileges.
Saar Needs Absolute Despots.
The League administration was
efficient and anonymous. Hardly a
Saarlander today would know the
British president of the League COM
mission, Godfrey G. Knox, if he ap-
peared on the street, and the same is
true of Finance Commissioner Morize.
The five men who have run the Saar
never received the press, never gave
functions, never entertained and never
made propaganda. They were there
to run the Saar until January 13, 1885,
when it should decide its own destiny.
They have run it as though it were a
limited company Their rule has been
an absolute despotism, but completely
disinterested one.
All parties continued to exist and
to send members to a sort of Parlia-
ment, but Parliament had only con-
sultive powers. The SaarlanderS sat
in the offices, conducted the civil SER
vice and held down jobs
The Saar is probably the only
country in Europe today without a
cent of Indebtedness, with a COM
pletely balanced budget, and with a
small, well-inveSted reserve. The
finance minister is French and frugal.
In fat years, he saved. In lean years,
he drew on big reserves. The $4,000
unemployed receive a dole as high as
the one paid in Germany, and it is
paid completely out of public funds.
The Saar railroads are in the black,
although the neighboring French and
German lines are heavily in the red.
The League government rebuilt the
roads and rebuilt the towns. Fifteen
years ago, in bad weather, one could
drown in the mud of Saarbrucken,
which was provincial town. Today
it is modern city, and, from one end
of the territory to the other, are mag
nificient roads. The population has
increased by 100000. Hospitals,
schools and churches stand where Is
years ago were empty lots. There are
1920 policemen and no army.
Taxes Lower Than Neighbors'.
Taxes are lower than in either
France or Germany. The government
is no more popular than an adding
machine, but the Saarlander looks
about him and knows that he has been
well off.
Nevertheless, blood is thicker than
water. If the Saarlander had voted
to decide his fate a year and halt
ago, he would have voted almost to
man for Germany. And neither
the French government nor the Comite
Des F'orges nor other powerful in
dustrial forces would have Influenced
him much one way or the other
In 1929 Foreign Minister Stresemann
OF Germany and Foreign Minister
BRAND of France could sit and smoke
together and work on a program for
an amicable settlement of the Saar
problem But Stresemann died before
that program came into being. And
today the peaceful Saar is a political
battle-ground. One man has made all
the difference: Adolf Hitler.
Copyright. 1894. by the North American
Newspaper Alliance. Inc)