The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-11-30

flag finally disappeared from the
Saar.
Today the Notifications of Vauban
still frown down on Saarlouis. The
little town of $1,000 still closely re-
sembles Verdun and the French
fortresses laid out by the great en-
gineer. The houses still look very
much the same. But the inhabit-
ants are mostly German.
Important Strategically
During the Franco-Prussian con-
fiict of 1870, Napoleon III made an
other thrust at the Saar. A divi-
sion of his troops clashed at Saar-
brucken with those of the kaiser's
grandfather. 1t was the first en-
gagement of the war, and Napoelon
III won. But on the heights of Spi-
chern, overlooking this victory to
the south, the Prussians four days
later got back their own, nor did
they stop until their king was
crowned emperor of Germany at
Versailles.
Militarily, as we'll as otherwise,
the Saarland is of immense strategic
Importance. High above Saarlouis
is what is called the Gau''-heights
which command not only the Saar
basin but the Bavarian plain be-
yond.
Give the French a window" goes
a saying in the Palatinate, land
they will take the room" BY which
they mean that. given the plateaus
of the Saar, the Rhineland soon
would follow.
Considering the past of these peo-
pie, there is little wonder that Eu-
rope feels she is sitting on a vol
cano as Jan. Is approaches. Their
temper been tried only recently.
Dreamed of Independence
For the first four or five years
after the World war, while the
armies of occupation still were
keeping the watch on the Rhine, an
influential group of Frenchmen still
dreamed of an independent Rhine
land republic to serve as a buffer
state between France and the Ger
manic forces which lately had twice
invaded their country.
President Poincare and Marshal
Foch we're of this number. So, too,
was General Mangin, commander of
the troops of occupation. Georges
CTigers) Clemenceau openly accused
him of being too close to the Ger
man plotters and threatened to re-
sign because Mangin was reporting
to Poincare instead of the minister
of war.
The Germany separationists at
last went so far as to issue a dec
laration of independence, winding up
with Long Live the Rhineland Re-
public!"
Then something happened. 1t
long has been known that the rank
and file of the population not only
had nothing to do with the plot
to separate the Rhineland from the
rest of Germany, but opposed it bit
terly as they dared under the bay
onetS of the occupation. Now they
prove it.
The PirmaSens Massacre
One freezing February morning
in 1924, in the little town of Pirma-
sens just a gunShot distance from
the Saar border, a group of citizens
called on the separationists at their
headquarters and ordered them to
vacate. They refused, and the group
went away.
Late that afternoon much big
ger crowd returned. They we're we'll
armed with German military equip
ment. They quietly SUR bundled the
building. When their demand to
surrender was refused, they satu-
rated the house with oil and applied
the torch.
as. one by one, the thirty or forty
separationiSts ran out, they were
shot down or hacked to pieces, de-
spite their pleas for nlercy. Hardly
one escaped. The massacre lasted
two or three hours. Yet not one
German policeman came to inter.
fere.
Let that be a lesson to all trait
ors TO the Fatherlandl"% the mob
growled as it dispersed. The
French" they added, will be next!"
Small wonder, then, that nervous,
war-weary. shell-shock Europe to-
dey is afiutter over what might hap
pen soon in the Saar.
TOMORROW - Why the Saar
changed hands.