ation 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 1048 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 per cent 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, Germ