League Approves New Saar Pact

and indefinitely protected in the Saar, not a single member of the Council raised any objection today to the paragraph in the Franco-German agreement on the Saar which provides that equality for the national minorities is guaranteed by Germany for a period of only one year.

Interested diplomatic circles here were embarrassed by the fact that the League of Nations had found no way to force Germany to accord to the Jews in the Saar at least the same rights held by the Jews in Upper Silesia. Some of the diplomats admitted that by approving the Saar deal the League failed to live up to its fundamental principle of enforcing protection for national and racial minorities.

A sensation was created at today’s meeting of the Council when Captain Anthony Eden, head of the British delegation at Geneva, announced that England is ready to send British troops to the Saar during the plebiscite if France will not do so and if Germany will agree to it. French Foreign Minister Laval declared to the Council that France is definitely determined not to participate in any international movement of troops into the Saar.

This statement by the French diplomat created a stir because only a few weeks ago the French government announced that it would be ready to send military forces to the Saar in order to strengthen the local police force there during the plebiscite next month.

The Saar report approved by the Council fails not only to protect Jewish interests but also the interests of American investors. Millions of dollars invested by Americans in Saar enterprises will now face the same fate as the debts which Germany owes to American investors. The bonds owned by Americans and other foreigners in Saar investments will now fall under the same monetary restrictions which exist in Germany and against which the government of the United States recently protested officially.