0.642. M.382 » 1922. I»

LEAGUE OE EATIOES Geneva, 23rd September, 1922

S A A R 3 A S I IT.

Documents concerning Dr. Factor, the Llembe:

of the Governing Commission

Mote by the Secretary General.-

The Secretary General has the honour to forvard for the information of the Council and the 11 embers of the Lea gras the follovirg documents concerning Dr. Hector, Saar Member nf the Governing Commission for the Saar Territory:

(jf) 1, Memorandum from re p re s e n ta tiv e s of c e rta in political parties in the Saar territory.

2. Memorandum, by Dr. Hector forwarded to the Secretary General on September 7th, 1922.

//) It is regretted that this document has only been supplied in sufficient numbers to allow

for the distribution of one copy to each State. 2. MEMORANDUM BY DR. HECTOR. siation. 3 REFUTING THE MEMORANDUM ADDRESSED TO THI

LEAGUE OE NATIONS REGARDING DR, HECTOR.

This Memorandum accusas me of having f a l s i f i e d a German text adopted by the Municipal Council of Saar 1 ouis, and of having

(transformed it, in its French translation, into a declaration of

yalty and fidelity addressed to the French Government, In order g repel these calumnies I need only establish the two following acts:

1) The French text, printed by the authors of the I.Iemorandum

a the opposite page to the German text, is merely an adaptation of le latter and, like it, was approved by the Municipal Council of

arlnuis.

2) Both texts are addressed, not to the French Government, but

the future Governing Commission of the Saar Territory.

As regards the first point, it will suffice to refer to

= official Minutes of the Meeting of the Municipal Council

^ on June 26th, 1919, The following is the literal translation:

“Agenda. Item No , 9 -, Various questions .

The Chairman (i.e. Burgomaster Hector) informed the

that M. Go or gen had drawn up, by his instructions, a

mdum on the Future of Saarlouis, to be forwarded to the Saar

-^ssion f Saarkommi s s i on ) . He sai.d that the matter should be

"ith at once „

Mr. Goergen read the Memorandum. After the question had

" u5îisidered at length, it was decided to adjourn until Saturday,

c^ ' in order to allow a full discussion of the contents of

"•^oranduin. " -2-

; rçr of June g6tli, 1919, adjourned to June 28th, 1919, at jionib. On a motion from the Chair, Hr. Goer gen again read the

varandum which he had drawn up. After a long and exhaustive dis-

iysion, the Members ag reed to the co n ten ts of the Memorandum. Some

iiitions desired by the Members were to be incorporated in the text

if the Memorandum dravn up by Mr. Coer gen.

The Chairman then announced that, at his request, H, Urbain

er had tr a n s la te d the Memorandum. M. Cahn then tra n s la te d the

stench text into German, which met with general approval. It was then

jiecided to forward both the German and the French texts to the

(competent a u t h o r i t i e s . ”

Prom this statement it will be seen that on June 26th, 1919,

[that is to say, two days before the signature of the Treaty of

îcrsaill.es, and on June 28 th , th a t is to say, on the very day of th is

signature, the Municipal Council of Saarlouis had already been in­

formed. for some days of the conditions of the Treaty of Peace relating

•0 the Saar, and were aware that the German national Assembly at

i.&imar had accepted the conditions of that Treaty on June 22nd, and

î,as considering the situation created in the town of Saarlouis by the nw conditions.

In my capacity as mayor, I instructed an official of the

•■"-il to draw up a lengthy report in German. The text of this Memo ran—

Urn was adopted by the Saarlouis Municipal Council.

At the meeting of June 28th not only was this decision takenj out a French text, the same as that printed in the Memorandum of the

Political Parties, vas unanimously approved by the same Municipal

^uQcii. This Prench text was a shortened form of the German ; it was, fi3»evor, a very faithful resume of it. Moreover I informed the Muni- ciïal Councillor of Saarlouis of this, and for their fuller ir.forma- I had the French text, first road, and then translated sentence Seûtonce by M. Cahn, a member of the Municipal Council. The I -3-

^ricipcl Councillors were, therefore , fully informed, and wore ax/are

,vt the French text vas not a literal translation of the German text inch had just been approved.

It vi 11 be seen, from this statement, that both the French

,a4 Geraan texts were approved by the municipal Council of Saarlouis. iareover, a comparison between the two texts shows that there is no

•jfference whatever between them. 'The same claims are explicitly put jn/ard in both, i.e: the establ ishment at Saarlouis of the capital f the Saar, and of the Supreme Court, the maintenance of a French prison at S a a rlo u is ; the e sta b lish m e n t a t Sa a rlo u is of the sc-at f a bishopric of the Saar, should such a bishopric be created.

The leaders of the Political Parties have picked out three

ases in the French text: they say that the first constitutes a

'eclaration of loyalty and fidelity to , In reality, this eclaration is in ten d ed f o r the body - to whom the Memorandum was

irossed, th a t i s to say, to the Governing Commission of the Saar aritory, as in the German te x t .

The second phrase contains, in the French text, a reproach

veiled at the Administration of the Prussian railways, which is

pposed to be omitted in the German text. A mere glance at this text ill show that the reproaches and claims concerning the Administration

the Railways are identical in both texts. The French text, though uortc] > defined them more accurately.

The third phrase objected to states that with regard to the ana"! i isation of the Saar, it will be necessary to obtain the interven­ ed botha of the French Government and of the Saar Basin Governing îlQi fie :ilsaion. This claim is also more accurately defined in the French St ' out it obviously has no political importance. It is generally

'J"!i tnat the canalisation of the Saar was the object of an agreement

%een France and , and that it could not be modified in any

an agreement between the Governing Commission and Frant -4-

On the other hand, there is no doubt that if the Trench text

• ere addressed to the Trench Government, it would have the meaning

-hioh the leaders of the Political Par tv ascribe to it, but that is

entirely incorrect; the minutes of the debate of the Municipal

Council quoted above shov quite clearly that this Memoranclum was

intended for the "Saar Commis si o n , that is to say, for the future

,'joverning Commis s io n o f the Saar T e rrito ry .

In June 1919, it was, in fact, laiora that a Governing

Conmission would shortly be entrusted with the government of the

Territory, but i t did n o t e x i s t a t th a t p erio d , N eith er was the

Council of the League of Nations, which set up this Commission, Then constituted. Moreover, at the meeting of the Municipal Council, I pas expressly instructed to forward the Memorandum to the competent iauthorities. These competent authorities at that time were the

I-3BC6 Conference. It was, to the competent authorities of the Peace inference that I sent the text of the Memorandum under discussion, it was there that it ’."as pointed out to me that the Memorandum was fsry loirw. and I was requested fio formulate the claims of the town

01 Saar-1 ouis more concisely, and to forward them to the Secretary- rdneral of the Lea.me of Fat ions, whose address would be communicated

-° ae later. This I did. nn Au ms t 24th 1919, in a short Memorandum

;hich exists in the archives of the town of Saar-louis, and which I

-orwarded direct to Sir Trie Drummond in London. It was communicated

/ nim to the Governing Commission of the Saar Territory when this

.DOd^r was established. This Memorandum is included among the documents

^ the League of Nations as Council Document, D3.1099-10-9-9.

If the text of this document is compared with the German and

--üBch texts mentioned above, it will be seen that it is an accurate

-

Request th a t th is Memorandum should be subm itted to the Governing

/ Commission -5-

MMission ui' ** '!t u e S a a r ” It is o- : ar , t he re for e , tha t t hi s

gadress ua orro. sponde exaotly v. ith Lût referred tô. in the

cinuiautes of the discussions oi the municipal Council's ii yich the Scar Commission v.se also mentioned.

To suggest that the French text printed by the leader

of the political Parties received another address from that

intended by the Saar-Louis Municipal Council in its discussions differing from the one which appears a t the head of the sum­ marised memorandum o f August 24th, 1919, is an a b so lu te ly gratuitous invention. It would be still more absurd to

that the french text print e d by the leaders of the

olitical Parties was addressed to the French Government. It

ontains, in fact, claims which the Governing Commission of

he Saar territory alone could satisfy. 'There the words

iohe Regie rung*7 appear in the German te x t, it is the Governing

Commi b si on of the Saar which is meant = In the same way , when in the French text submitted by the leaders of the Political

arties, the word "you" appears „ it is intended to mean the

idressee of the letter, i , e » , the Governing Commission of th

aar, and the sentence ,T as su re you, at the same time of its

idelity and loyalty” is explicitly addressed to the Governing

Dfflmission. It corresponds to the sentence in the German

"ext where i t is s ta te d th a t the lead in g men o f Saar-Lou is md the whole p o p u la tio n accept w ith sin cere l o y a l t y , and

ith. absolute confidence - the h- Political and economic future of the new state to which they belong, the situation as established by the Peace Conference of V ersailles<■

To sum up, the Fronch te: t reproduced by the leaders of

ne political parties is not a literal translation, but a

Sorter and more precise version of the German text. It

’Presses the same idea without altering the sense in any way

^ without modifying it tendenciously. The Saar-iCuis

-^ioipal Council acproved it, as i t approved tne German te^

French tex t addressed, 1 i-

t£rniflg Coramis sion o f the S a a r.

Under the se circumstances it is a pure calumny on the part

'the signatories of the memorandum to speak of a falsification

the texts adopted by the Saar-Louis Municipal Council»

On the occasion of my re-appointment, the- Saar p ress

■sin brought up these assertions and made use of them to luse and slander me. I shall take legal proceedings against s authors of these articles. In this way the public cinion of the Saar, and, at the same time, the League of

tions, will be put into possession of the facts with regard

the underhand intrigues against my person, and w ill be ft to convince themselves of my perfect innocence,