Curtius, who had opposed
suppressing the old parish of Saint Nicholas at Strassburg, was
removed. His successor, who was better disciplined, gave in to the
measure that was demanded.

The war against the French language has been marked by the suppression
of all French newspapers since the war's beginning, the _Journal
d'Alsace-Lorraine_, the _Messin_, _the Nouvelliste d'Alsace-Lorraine_.
But nothing shows better the necessity of having organs of public
opinion in French than the establishment at Metz of the _Gazette
d'Alsace-Lorraine_ by the government, which served as a model for the
_Gazette des Ardennes_, founded later on at Mezieres, to demoralize
the inhabitants of the invaded districts in the north and west of
France.

_The Treatment of the Soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine_

The soldiers from Alsace-Lorraine, whose loyalty was proclaimed at the
war's beginning, have, as a matter of fact, been treated like spies
and embryo deserters.

In August, 1915, at the opening of the Alsatian parliament, the
Statthalter denounced the anti-patriotism of a part of the population
and stigmatized the "traitors" who had "gone over to the enemy."

In fact, no less than fourteen thousand Alsatians, in the face of
manifold perils and difficulties, had rejoined the colors of their
true country. All the newspapers of Alsace-Lorraine still publish the
lists of them as citizens and of their belongings as "refractory
individuals."

The movement has never stopped. During the thirty-second month of the
war, on the fourteenth of March, 1917, General von Nassner,
commandant for the district of Saarbruck, published the following
extraordinary order:

"Whoever, after due examination, has reason to believe that a soldier
or a man on reprieve proposes to desert and who can still prevent the
execution of this crime, must without delay give notice of this fact
to the nearest military or police authority."

The Strassburg _Neueste Nachrichten_ for the twenty-seventh of
September announced that the "_chambre correctionnelle_ at Kolmar had
condemned by default one hundred and ninety men from the
arrondissements of Guebwiller and Ribeauville to fines of six hundred
marks or forty days in prison for having failed to perform their
military obligations."

The _Oberelsaessische Landeszeitung_ for the eleventh of October,
1917, announced sentences of fines of three thousand marks or three
hundred days in prison for the same reason against seven