(i) “As compensation for the destruction of the coal-mines in the north of France, and as part payment towards the total reparation due from Germany for the damage resulting from the war, Germany cedes to France in full and absolute possession, with exclusive rights of exploitation, unencumbered, and free from all debts and charges of any kind, the coal-mines situated in the Saar Basin.”36 While the administration of this district is vested for fifteen years in the League of Nations, it is to be observed that the mines are ceded to France absolutely. Fifteen years hence the population of the district will be called upon to indicate by plebiscite their desires as to the future sovereignty of the territory; and, in the event of their electing for union with Germany, Germany is to be entitled to repurchase the mines at a price payable in gold.37
The judgment of the world has already recognized the transaction of the Saar as an act of spoliation and insincerity. So far as compensation for the destruction of French coal-mines is concerned, this is provided for, as we shall see in a moment, elsewhere in the Treaty. “There is no industrial region in Germany,” the German representatives have said without contradiction, “the population of which is so permanent, so homogeneous, and so little complex as that of the Saar district. Among more than 650,000 inhabitants, there were in 1918 less than 100 French. The Saar district has been German for more than 1,000 years. Temporary occupation as a result of warlike operations on the part of the French always terminated in a short time in the restoration of the country upon the conclusion of peace. During a period of 1,048 years France has possessed the country for not quite 68 years in all. When, on the occasion of the first Treaty of Paris in 1814, a small portion of the territory now coveted was retained for France, the population raised the most energetic opposition and demanded ‘reunion with their German fatherland,’ to which they were ‘related by language, customs, and religion.’ After an occupation of one year and a quarter, this desire was taken into account in the second Treaty of Paris in 1815. Since then the country has remained uninterruptedly attached to Germany, and owes its economic development to that connection.”
The French wanted the coal for the purpose of working the ironfields of Lorraine, and in the spirit of Bismarck they have taken it. Not precedent, but the verbal professions of the Allies, have rendered it indefensible.38
(ii) Upper Silesia, a district without large towns, in which, however, lies one of the major coalfields of Germany with a production of about 23 percent of the total German output of hard coal, is, subject to a plebiscite,39 to be ceded to Poland. Upper Silesia was never part of historic Poland; but its population is mixed Polish, German, and Czechoslovakian, the precise proportions of which are disputed.40 Economically it is intensely German; the industries of Eastern Germany depend upon it for their coal; and its loss would be a destructive blow at the economic structure of the German State.41
With the loss of the fields of Upper Silesia and the Saar, the coal supplies of Germany are diminished by not far short of one-third.
(iii) Out of the coal that remains to her, Germany is obliged to make good year by year the estimated loss which France has incurred by the destruction and damage of war in the coalfields of her northern Provinces. In para. 2 of Annex V to the Reparation Chapter, “Germany undertakes to deliver to France annually, for a period not exceeding ten years, an amount of coal equal to the difference between the annual production before the war of the coal-mines of the Nord and Pas de Calais, destroyed as a result of the war, and the production of the mines of the same area during the year in question: such delivery not to exceed 20,000,000 tons in any one year of the first five years, and 8,000,000 tons in any one year of the succeeding five years.”
This is a reasonable provision if it stood by itself, and one which Germany should be able to fulfil if she were left her other resources to do it with.
(iv) The final provision relating to coal is part of the general scheme of the Reparation Chapter by which the sums due for Reparation are to be partly paid in kind instead of in cash. As a part of the payment due for Reparation, Germany is to make the following deliveries of coal or equivalent in coke (the deliveries to France being wholly additional to the amounts available by the cession of the Saar or in compensation for destruction in Northern France):—
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(i) To France 7,000,000 tons annually for ten years;42
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(ii) To Belgium 8,000,000 tons annually for ten years;
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(iii) To Italy an annual quantity, rising by annual increments from 4,500,000 tons in 1919–1920 to 8,500,000 tons in each of the six years, 1923–1924 to 1928–1929;
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(iv) To Luxembourg, if required, a quantity of coal equal to the prewar annual consumption of German coal in Luxembourg.
This amounts in all to an annual average of about 25,000,000 tons.
These figures have to be examined in relation to Germany’s probable output. The maximum prewar figure was reached in 1913 with a total of 191,500,000 tons. Of this, 19,000,000 tons were consumed at the mines, and on balance (i.e. exports less imports) 33,500,000 tons were exported, leaving 139,000,000 tons for domestic consumption. It is estimated that this total was employed as follows:—
| Railways | 18,000,000 | tons. |
| Gas, water, and electricity | 12,500,000 | ” |
| Bunkers | 6,500,000 | ” |
| House-fuel, small industry and agriculture | 24,000,000 | ” |
| Industry | 78,000,000 | ” |
| 139,000,000 | ” |
The diminution of production due to loss of territory is:—
| Alsace-Lorraine | 3,800,000 | tons. |
| Saar Basin | 13,200,000 | ” |
| Upper Silesia | 43,800,000 | ” |
| 60,800,000 | ” |
There would remain, therefore, on the basis of the 1913 output, 130,700,000 tons, or, deducting consumption at the mines themselves, (say) 118,000,000 tons.
