Stranica 1 [1]
X.A.NO.9. for November 1952.
REPORT FROM THE SAAR.
Somehow or other the athmosphere on the Saar has been
changing rapidly since the last visit. Just as now, the Saar¬
pruecken of the late October is gloomier than the one of the
early summer and it is hard to recognize this ag the same tom,
the same stands for the inpalpable affairs of P litics,. Out¬
wardly nothing has changed. The governement is Still officia¬
ting in its ultra-modern offices 3 the P,licemen are still the
same; the shops still sell French goods and with them the ad¬
vise how to smuggle them best across the G_rman border. But
while thus outwardly nothing seems to have°changed, subtly the
atmosphere is different. The porter at the Hotel Messmer is no
longer so eager to show his knowledge of French. The same is
true for all the employees. In the streets also, people sud¬
denly seem to have forgotten their french. Even in the offices
of the innumerable Corporations, the correspondence is inerra¬
singly written in German 3; many refuse to reply in French to
Freneh letters. And the imumerable French technicians and
administrators, who used tp crowd, sometimes to monopolize
the more expensive Restaurants of the tom, seem to have become
less conspivuows, more subdued. The waiters talk first in Ger¬
man, a thing they did nit do in the more expensive places only
a few months ago. They are now reluctant to speak in Frenche
And sensing the change of atmosphere, some french bussinessmen
are moving back to France, while others are thinking seriously
at selling out their part interests in Sear bussiness. Even
gome of the officials of the French operations of the Mines and
the Steel Mills, who in June where thinking at buying homes,
have given up these plans for the time being.
This change of atmosphere reflects well the change of
the political future of the Saar, Somehow both the French go¬
vernement and the Saar regime are on the retreet. They know,
that on the long run the ben on German parties can not be held;
that they will have, sooner or later, to let the German Par¬
ties take part in the elections ; that in such a case the so¬
called Saar Parties will be the losers. The negociations with
the Germans on this, question were the first signs of weajmess.
Then followed the S human speach to the French Pariiement, in
which the French Foreign Minister implicitly admitted, that
time now was working against the Freneh and for the Germans.
In fact, Schuman made no secret of it, that it was now a dea¬
dly question for the Freneh to come to a conclusion soon,
since the Germans were wiming increasingly their point. Added
to this was the widely publicized Saar Egitorial of the Europe¬
an paper in Strasbourg, which with the approval of Speak allegd¬