THE FRENCH IN THE PALATINATE.
WHILE for some time past the singular developments of the Separatist movement, procured by the French in the occupied parts of the Rhineland, have caused many protests—as our pages have borne witness —affairs in one part of the Rhineland have passed un- noticed. That part is the southern spur of the Rhineland, which comes under the administration of Bavaria but is separated from Bavaria by the Rhine. The Palatinate has, of course, a very ancient history. There are few more terrible stories than that of the overrunning of it by Louis XIV. At the end of the seventeenth century he gave over the Palatinate, in his own dreadful phrase, to " military execution." Whole towns were destroyed ; vineyards were cut down and burnt ; at Heidelberg the castle of the Elector Palatine was destroyed. At Mannheim even the stones of the destroyed buildings were cast into the Rhine. Louis at first hesi- tated to destroy Speyer and Worms, but he overcame his scruples, no doubt on the principle adopted later by Bismarck that he would leave the people " only their eyes to weep with," and those towns with their noble churches were also burned.. The inhabitants fled through the snow from the devastated land to escape starvation, and many died on the way. • We do not, of course, want to compare what has been happening in the Palatinate during the past few months —for much has happened though we were ignorant of it—with what was done by Louis XIV., but the facts are bad enough. The veil has at last been lifted. Un- pleasant though the duty is, we feel that a protest is necessary. The French have had the Palatinate to them- selves, as there has been no British representative there ; and till English journalists visited it recently—notably representative& of the Timis and the Manchester Guardian —we had no reason to suppose that that normally peaceful part of Germany was not enjoying something like its accustomed quiet.
It seems that when the Separatist movement in other parts of the Rhineland was failing because the light of day had been turned upon its sinister origins, and the Belgians, to their credit, were refusing to have further part or lot in such an intrigue, the French turned their attention particularly to the Palatinate. They had the field to themselves and no resistance need be feared. The English correspondents have recorded that many of the roughs who were for some time maintained by the French as the genuine representatives of an autonomous Administration in other parts of the Rhineland were brought to the Palatinate in French lorries and in trains of the French Regie. M. Tirard, President -of the Rhineland High Commission, has announced on the- strength of information received by him from General de Metz (who is the real power in the Palatinate) that there is no Government in the Pala- tinate except the Autonomous Government, and that therefore France cannot do otherwise than recognize the only Government which exists. Literally the argu- ment is invincible. The logic is beautiful. For the fact is that M. Tirard and General de Metz have themselves expelled all the members of the lawful Government, either doing it directly or through the medium of the Separatist Government. The Separatists, who " rule " by courtesy of the French, have issued various decrees of such a nature that they command the full assent of the French, and it was only. by a narrow chance that these were not ratified the other day by the -Rhineland Com- mission. The British representative on the Commission, of course, objected, but the decrees might have been ratified, nevertheless—they had already been registered— had not the Belgians managed, to help the. British repre- sentative to postpone the question. If there had been ratification, Great Britain might have seemed to all the world to be a consenting party to what is being done in the Palatinate. In any case, it would have been more difficult than ever to resist what had the formal sanction of the Commission.
The special correspondent of the Times has pointed out that " declarations of loyalty " to the new regime have been extracted from terrified burgomasters by ruthless means. He says that Separatist bands, under the very eyes of the French authorities, have raided the houses of the burgomasters and intimidated them into compliance. The typical burgomaster is a peasant proprietor with a little bit of land and a. handful of stock. " You will sign this declaration," he is told, " or you leave your home for ever. Your land and cattle will be confiscated. A lorry to deport you is at the door." Those burgomasters who refused soon learned that the Separatists were empowered by the French to carry out their threats. A deported man was deposited in a Separatist gaol, or if he was lucky enough not to be kept in prison was sent into unoccupied territory. The deportees have little hope of returning. The Separatists deprived them of their passes, although these had been issued by the French.
Apart from violence of this sort, there has been a variety of trickery to rig up an appearance of voluntary German compliance. In the returns showing the " de- clarations of loyalty " the figures are given according to communes, not according to individual votes. Thus, a little hamlet of 500 inhabitants may be reckoned as a community in favour of Separatism, while the great port of Ludwigshafen, with its 100,000 inhabitants (who have not signed), is also reckoned as one community. Then again, the French apparently find it a simple matter to condone actions which favour their cause and to punish precisely comparable actions which have the opposite effect. When a Separatist disturbs the peace by bullying an opponent of the sham autonomous move- ment, the French cannot interfere, because it is all a matter of " internal German politics." Yet the French sentries allow deported men to be thrust freely across the frontier by Separatist escorts, although they have orders to allow nobody else to go by who has not a pass and a visa.
While many Germans, whether under terror or for the pay of a few francs a day, lend themselves to these intrigues, atrocious passions are inevitably aroused. Take as an example the murders at Speyer on Wednes- day, January 9th. The so-called President of the Separa- tist Government of the Palatinate was dining at an hotel with members of his " Cabinet " when four young men entered with revolvers and shot him and some of his colleagues dead. Altogether six persons were killed, though it is said that one of these was a Separatist. Such things will happen under such conditions, though the certainty remains that nothing ever was or ever will be settled or helped by murder.
There will be retribution not for France only but for all Europe if such things are allowed to continue. In our opinion the American representatives on the expert committees dealing with reparations will be quite justified in calling attention to affairs in the Palatinate, which if allowed to pass will assuredly sterilize all their efforts to reach a solution. We hope that they will not hesitate to say what they think. They are less bound than European representatives by conventions and punctilios. It often happens that the things which few men, dare to mention lie at the heart of the whole matter, and we are sure that it is se in this case,
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