Tension in the Saar The last six months of the
fifteen years during which the Saar Valley was placed under League of Nations tutelage are likely to be the most difficult in the Saar itself and the most delicate for the League of Nations Council, to which the exercise of the tutelage falls. The present situation is unexpected. The Saar had always been counted on to vote solidly for a return to Germany, and the majority of its inhabitants will pretty certainly declare themselves for that still. But its large Roman Catholic population fears the present regime in Germany and the plebiscite is not quite the same foregone conclusion that it was. The suggestion that in existing circumstances the plebiscite should be postponed is intelligible, but any such decision would be a profound mistake. The Treaty does not permit it, and it would mean a new and violent conflict between the League and Germany, where the reunion of the Saar with the Reich is regarded already as almost a fait accompli. All possible guarantees must be exacted for the safety of non-Nazis in the Saar after the plebiscite has been taken, but it is of the first importance to Europe that the Western frontier of Germany should be finally settled as soon as possible. That means by the date prescribed in the Versailles Treaty for the plebiscite in the Saar,
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