Sunday in the Saar
Nothing is more essential for the safety of Europe than that Dr. Adenauer and his Coalition Government should remain in power in West Germany at any rate till the General Election of next summer. Nothing is less calculated to ensure that than the completely undemocratic proceedings in the Saar, culminat- ing in the elections there next Sunday. The Saar, with its million inhabitants, down to 1919 was purely German territory. From 1920 to 1935 it was put under the League of Nations for a special reason. In the latter year it voted by a majority of nine to one for a return to Germany, and it remained German till the end of the last war. There is little doubt that the great majority of the inhabitants are German in sympathy, as they are by descent, still, but pro-German newspapers and pro-German political parties are alike banned. There is a com- plete economic union with France, which also has responsibility for the defence and the foreign relations of the Saar. So long as this continues nationalist tendencies in Germany, such as they are—and they certainly cannot be ignored, as the unmistakable trend to the Right at the Free Democratic Congress at Bad Ems in the past week indicates—will have admirable campaign- material in their hands. The Free Democrats, it must be remembered are part of Dr. Adenauer's coalition. He has declared,' with full justification, that the German Government will not recognise the result of the Saar elections, condueted as they are under virtually totalitarian conditions. M. Schuman, to do him justice, has been doing his utmost to reach an agreement with Dr. Adenauer about the Saar, but the meaning of Thursday's announcement of modifications in the economic covention between France and the Saar re- mains to be interpreted. The whole question is primarily a Franco-German affair, but Mr. Eden's mediatory influence should be exerted to the utmost, and no doubt is being, .with both parties.
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