Equal rights for the Jews in the Saar, but apparently for one year only, were guaranteed today by Germany in an agreement signed here by representatives of the French and German governments on problems concerning the Saar region, should the Saar plebiscite favor return to Germany.
The agreement was sanctioned by the special committee which the League of Nations appointed to deal with the Saar plebiscite and will be ratified Wednesday by the Council of the League of Nations in Geneva.
It is due to the insistence of the League of Nations that Germany has agreed to the special paragraph in the agreement guaranteeing the rights of the Jews, Julio Lopez Olivan, Spanish delegate to the Saar committee appointed by the League of Nations, declared today in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
CAUTIONS PESSIMISTS
Disclosing to the representative of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the agreement is valid for one year only and that Germany had refused to accept a longer term which the Saar committee proposed, Mr. Olivan advised that the Jews of the world should not be too pessimistic about the fate of Saar Jewry.
“There is no ground for excessive pessimism with regard to the situation of the Jews in the Saar,” Mr. Olivan stated.
Diplomatic circles here were somewhat surprised to find that Germany has agreed to assure full equality for the Jews in the Saar. This concession by the German government is taken in diplomatic circles here as a sign that the French government has made the question of Jewish rights in the Saar one of its major conditions.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
According to the agreement signed today France will receive from Germany about $60,000,000 compensation in addition to 11,000,000 tons of coal from the Saar mines, in case the January plebiscite turns the Saar back to Germany. Germany is to guarantee equal rights for all inhabitants of the Saar regardless of race, language and religion. Equal rights are also to be guaranteed to all as far as social insurance and state relief is concerned.
The official communique issued here with regard to the agreement
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