The economic situation in the Ruhr has improved, as the
miners are resuming work and have agreed to work an extra hour a day, while the German railwaymen are returning to their posts. The political situation, however, remains obscure. French and German banks have agreed to establish a Rhineland Bank of Issue, under the supervision of the French Government ; it is said that the British Government will be invited to share in the enterprise, though the reply is unlikely to be favourable. The German Government is said to contemplate some form of autonomy for the Rhineland and the Ruhr. This might suit the French, who are in occupation, but it would seriously affect the ability of Germany to pay reparations to the Allies as a whole, inasmuch as four-sevenths of the German revenue is derived from the occupied territories. It becomes more and more clear that France is bent on handling the Rhineland problem in her own way, while Great Britain and Italy are to look on in helpless silence. So long as the British troops remain at Cologne, we are not wholly without influence there, but outside the small British sphere France does what she pleases. * * * *
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