FRANCE AND THE SEPARATISTS.
[TO the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sre,—With reference -to 'M.' Saberwein's- article in your issue of 'March 22nd, -I cannot refrain from commenting on his retharks regarding thir*Sepatatist- question. He states -
" The French "Government has been accused of supporting the Separatists: It is scarcely a serious accusation, for sincerely trust that if in this district where• there. are loofloo French troops the- Government had .really supported the Separatists, the-Separatists would have succeeded in establish- ing their power instead of ailing and being massacred:" It is amazing • how. Frenchmen who are aware of the facts
persist in repudiating any connexion between- the French Government and the Separatists when the mass of evidence that has been collected goes to prove the contrary. I was in French Occupied Territory during the whole of the Separatist disturbances; but it was only necessary to have been there one day in order to be aware of the open support given to the • Separatists by the French authorities, while observations dur- ing several months absolutely convinced me that it was not only support given by local French authorities in the various districts, but was part and parcel of higher French policy. Also the unfairness and harshness which the population suffered from French authorities and Separatists alike during this movement alienated much of the sympathy which I always had for our Ally. As a matter of fact, the Separatists, did succeed in establishing their power, thanks to French support, though only temporarily, and it was only time strength of public opinion in the outside world against them that com pelled the French to reverse their policy and withdraw their support, thereby involving the fall of the Separatists from power. if General Degoutte was not an adherent of the Separatist cause, then time French Government had other worthy disciples in M. Tirard, French High Commissioner, and General de Metz (to mention only two names), who carried out their policy with considerable energy.—I am,
P.S.—If the French Government were really neutral as regards time Separatist movement, why did the French Authori tics in the Palatinate arrest only the anti-Separatists during the recent disturbances and not make a single arrest among the Separatists, whose presence in the Palatinate was really at the bottom of all the trouble ? Time French excuse for such arrests is usually that the persons were a danger to the " security of the Army of Occupation," but it is obvious to any impartial observer that it was the Separatists who constituted- a danger to the security of the army, owing to the disturbance of public order which their presence created.
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