3 NOVEMBER 1923, Page 2

The Separatists are modern condottieri and, like the • condottieri,

they would melt away before any disciplined attack because they are fighting for pay and not for a genuine cause. Incidentally we may remark that the Rhineland Agreement which is supposed to be carried out by the High Commission in the occupied area is being flagrantly violated by the French and in a lesser degree by the Belgians. The account by the Times correspondent must sicken anybody who remembers the principles which all the signatories of the Treaty of Versailles said that they wanted to put into effect for the salvation of Europe. Yet the correspondent is the very reverse of a sensation-monger ; his narrative is terrible just because it is dispassionate and critical in the treatment of evidence.