THE COUNCIL OF FOUR


administration, legislation and jurisdiction and which, at least in so
far as those matters are concerned, will completely sever the connec-
tion between the territory of the Sarre and the rest of the Empire.
The authorities of the occupying Power cannot be unaware that the
whole population refuses with the greatest energy to be separated
from its Fatherland. The few who, in order to flatter the occupying
Power or to gain profit for themselves, pretend otherwise, need not
be considered.
It will be vain to argue that an occupation of 15 years only is con-
templated and that, at the end of that period, the future nationality
of the population will be decided by a plebiscite, since the restitution
of this territory to Germany is made to depend on the ability of the
German Government to repurchase from the French Government in
gold, in a short time, all the coal mines of the territory, and, if this
payment could not be made, France would acquire the territory per-
manently even should the population unanimously vote for Germany.
According to the financial and economic clauses of the Treaty, it
seems impossible that, at the end of 15 years, Germany will be able to
dispose of the necessary amount of gold and, moreover, even if she
possessed it, the Commission on Reparations, which would then domi-
nate the country, would probably not allow it to be used for this
purpose. There is in modern history no example of a civilised Power
binding another to subject its own nationals to a foreign domination
as the equivalent of a sum in gold.
Public opinion in the enemy countries represents the cession of the
territory of the Sarre as just compensation for the destruction of the
mines of Northern France. The German Delegation also recognises
that an indemnity in money alone would not offset the deterioration
of the economic position of France. While the justice of the demand
for an indemnity in kind is recognised, this indemnity should and
can be found by other means than by a foreign domination which,
notwithstanding the most humane intentions on the part of the
authorities, will always remain odious.
The German Delegation is ready at once to enter into negotia-
tions with the Allied and Associated Governments with a view to
examine how to make good the deficiency of coal till the mines de-
stroyed had been put back into working order, a task which Germany
has undertaken to accomplish. In the course of these negotiations
she would propose to find some more just arrangement than the
primitive and unsuitable method of compensation involved in the
surrender of the mining Basin of the Sarre. In the place of the
deficient coal supply of northern France, it would be necessary to
deliver coal from German mines, i. e., not only from the Sarre but
also from the Ruhr. Leaving aside the fact that it would not be


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