* * * Problems of a Plebiscite It was a
pity that the League of Nations Council could not get so far as to fix the date of the plebiscite in the Saar at its last week's meeting, but an adjournment of eleven days—the Council is to hold a special session from next Wednesday—is no great matter. The sticking-point appears to be that the Germans will give no guarantees regarding •the protection of the population till the date of the plebiscite is fixed, and the French will not agree to fix the date until the guarantees are given. If there were goodwill, which can unfortunately not be taken for granted, there need be no great difficulty in bridging this narrow gulf. Germany professes to be ready to guarantee genuine Saarlanders of whatever party against victimiza- tion when the territory comes back to Germany, but refuse any undertaking at all in respect of Germans who have left the Reich to settle in the Saar and, as the Nazis put it, to conduct anti-Nazi propaganda from there. Whether differentiation in the treatment of the two classes can be justified, a- difference does exist—a difference, specifically, between those entitled to vote in the plebis. cite (who were resident in the Saar fifteen years ago) and more recent immigrants. The League is under moral compulsion to take all possible measures for the protec- tion of the former. How far it can wisely or properly go in respect of the• latter is more doubtful.
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