4 JANUARY 1935, Page 5

The Last Lap in the Saar The underlying tension in

the Saar described by Mr. Powys Greenwood in his article from Saarbrucken on a later page has unfortunately found expression in various minor disturbances reported since that article was written. Feeling is obviously running high, and the days which intervene between this and the actual voting must be a time of serious anxiety for the Governing Commission, particularly since Mr. Knox and his col- leagues have reason to be well aware that any inter- vention they may find it necessary to make will bring abuse on them from one side or the other. That the International Force may have to be called on to support the police in the maintenance of order is possible enough, particularly since every local member of the police force is a partisan; but that, after all, is what the force is there for, and so far at any rate as the British contingent is concerned—there is no reason to write any differently regarding the others—it can be relied on to fulfil a difficult mission with tact as well as firmness. So far as can be seen, the danger of any irruption from outside the territory is completely excluded, and though a force of 3,000 is none too large for the maintenance of order among a population of 800,000, it should prove sufficient.