FRANCE MAY CLAIM THE RUHR
Barlow, Hon. Lady
France May Claim The Ruhr Annexation Of Rhine Province Now Viewed As a Possibility; Conditions Become Daily More Critical By Hon. Lady Barlow THERE is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that...
...She has stated the sum that she is wilting to pay and gives as guarantees bonds on real estate and on her railways...
...this is now reduced to £8 annually...
...When patients with infectjfous illnesses ¦ are turned out of hospital it will bo seen that the rapid spread of illness must result...
...Trade At Standstill •T*HE reaction in this country is inevitable...
...Can we, as a people, rise to our responsibil...
...The French Air Force is equal to that of the whole of Europe...
...Sir George Paish, ex-editor of the •'Economist," describes the offer as "an admirable one...
...Belgium, for whose Independence Englishmen fought, Is now tied by military agreement to France, is incapable of independent action and is politically enslaved...
...Tuberculosis is increasing in all the towns and this is helped by the absence of milk...
...In the Ruhr Valley schools have been commandeered, likewise railways...
...France and the whole world Is well aware of this...
...English merchants in Cologne are being treated by the French authorities in a manner which is almost incredible...
...A case was given me of a business man whose income amounted to £1000 a year...
...Lady Barlow THERE is no use shutting our eyes to the fact that the situation in the Ruhr becomes daily -more critical The intention of the French government is now plain...
...The lower middle class is either living on the rates or is disappearing...
...There is no incentive to save...
...The uncertainty, indeed, it may be called mental torture, is indescribable...
...Disease is increasing rapidly...
...Meanwhile, France iff advancing large sums to the nations comprising the Little Entente, also to Poland and Rumania...
...A cordon is drawn between the Ruhr Province and Germany proper...
...England's Next Move WHAT is the solution offered by Germany...
...Sixty thousand persons have now been deported...
...The problem is no longer purely political or economic...
...Suicides are so frequent that doctors have orders to bring in a verdict of heart failure as things of this kind are catching...
...Are we going to encourage the forces of Communism on the Continent of Europe by our indifference or are we going to make a reasonable offer to France to induce her to amend her ways ? We went into the War with empty hands but we have come out of the War with large additions to Our possessions...
...That is now at a standstill...
...The next move lies with England...
...Milk supplies have mainly been stopped...
...A workingman who may in many years have saved £100 will find in the course of a night it has dwindled to 10s...
...Floggings and shootings are of frequent occurrence...
...All the European countries are waiting to aee what this move will be...
...There is reason to suppose military agreements- have been entered into with these countries and possibly also between France and Japan...
...It is rapidly being wiped out...
...If this sum is not thought enough she is willing to accept the finding of independent experts...
...It is, not reparations that they are seeking but the dismemberment of Germany and the annexation of the Rhine Province...
...This money it is stipulated shall be spent in the purchase of arms from French munition makers...
...Artisan families are expelled at a moment's notice and are driven over the frontier -unable to take with them even their small possessions...
...4 At the end of last year and the 'beginning of the present year considerable trade .was done between England and the Ruhr district...
...It is a moral question...
...In that district conditions are becoming more rigorous week by week...
Vol. 15 • July 1923 • No. 7
