Nov. 8.
Ox October 21 we received the first news that the Separatist movement in Germany's Rhineland Province had taken definite shape. On that date a Rhineland Republic was proclaimed at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, as has since been seen, that proclamation has been the signal for the movement spreading southward. Tt still continues in spite of certain vicissitudes, and its most important extension recently has been into the Bavarian Palatmate. This must not be regarded as of too great significance, although it has a distinct importance of its own. Inhabited: although it is by typical Bayarians, fierce and uncompromising as the majority of their countrymen, the Palatinate is separated from the Bavarian motherland by a considerable area. Between Bavaria proper and the Palatinate lie Wurtemburg and "Baden, but this notwithstanding the Palatinate is Bavarian. At the same time it is in a position to he specially influenced by movements from outside. Tis northern frontier is bounded by the Rhineland Province—the home of the present Separatist movement—and to the west is Lorraine, once more a part of France. Furthermore the Palatinate has been occupied: by French troops ever since the Armistice, and to-day we have to consider the possibility of the political situation there being influenced by such outside factors.
The extension of the Separa-fist movement into the Bavarian Palatinate is the first of the two important events in the present political situation in Germany the second is the action of Belgium in taking up a hostile attitude to the Separatists. Both are cognate, and both are extremely difficult to deal with in a positively neutral manner. A¥ in the case of the Rhineland, separation from the German Reich is no new idea for the Bavarian Palatinate, for it could readily, from its geographical Position, come into the Buffer State arrangement' which the Separatists seem to be aiming at. So as long ago as 1920 4 distinct Separatist movement was felt there. Under the cloud of night the. Separatists posted their placards-on the walls, and in the daylight the Bavarians
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.