The Saar settlement deserves some further comment. The Germans desired
that the proposed international police force should consist of fewer than 800 men. They also wanted guarantees that the force should be really international, and not composed of Frenchmen with a kind of international mandate. The difficulty is that most nations are not sufficiently interested in the Saar to send their nationals there. Herr Stresemann laid down certain conditions for accepting the proposed police, and M. Briand flatly rejected them. After a time, as the Times correspondent tells us, Sir Austen Chamberlain intervened, and pointed out that M. Briand might without risk consent to the prompt withdrawal of the French troops as Herr Stresemann had requested. The only real remaining difficulty was the character and strength of the police force.
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