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The Saar Plebiscite

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

James K. Pollock
James K. Pollock
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

The Treaty of Versailles provided that at the termination of a period of fifteen years from its coming into force, a plebiscite should be held in the Saar Territory to determine under what sovereignty its inhabitants desired to be placed. The following conditions were laid down for the plebiscite: “A vote will take place by communes or districts on the three following alternatives: (a) maintenance of the régime established by the present Treaty and by this Annex; (b) union with France; (c) union with Germany. All persons, without distinction of sex, more than 20 years old at the date of voting, resident in the Territory at the date of signature of the present Treaty, will have the right to vote. The other conditions, methods, and the date of voting shall be fixed by the Council of the League of Nations in such a way as to secure the freedom, secrecy,and trustworthiness of the voting.”

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , April 1935 , pp. 275 - 282
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1935

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References

1 The most exhaustive and satisfactory treatment of the Saar problem is contained in the two information department papers put out by the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London: No. 11, The Saar Problem, and No. 14, The Saar Plebiscite. Foreign Policy Report, Vol. 10, No. 22 (January 2, 1935)Google Scholar, is also very useful. Various releases by the Information Section of the League of Nations are indispensable. See also Grabowski, A. and Sante, G. W., Die Grundlagen des Saarkampfes, (Berlin, Heymanns, 1934)Google Scholar, and Florinsky, Michael T., The Saar Struggle (New York, Macmillan, 1934)Google Scholar. Wambaugh, Sarah, Plebiscites Since the World War, 2 vols. (Washington, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1934)Google Scholar is the standard work on plebiscites.

2 Treaty of Versailles, Pt. III, Sect. IV, Annex, Art. 34.

3 League of Nations, Official Journal, January, 1934, p. 161Google Scholar.

4 League of Nations, Official Journal, June, 1934, pp. 651–653Google Scholar.

5 These resolutions are found in League of Nations, Official Journal, June, 1934, pp. 647–650Google Scholar.

6 The cost of the plebiscite is to be borne by the German and French governments and by the Governing Commission. At the request of the Council, each of the two governments provided five million French francs and the Commission one million. This amount proved insufficient and at its September meeting, 1934, the Council asked for a further advance from each of the parties concerned. The final cost of the plebiscite, including the cost of the international police force, has not yet been determined.

7 For the details of these arrangements, see League of Nations, Official Journal, December, 1934Google Scholar.

8 The presidents were taken from the following countries: 365 from Holland; 350 from Switzerland; 220 from Luxemburg; 6 from Denmark; 4 from Great Britain; 3 from Italy; 1 from Sweden; 1 from the United States. (The president from the United States was Professor J. K. Pollock, author of this article. Man. Ed.)

9 Local members of election boards were permitted to vote in the precincts where they were working.

10 See my German Election Administration (Columbia University Press, 1934), pp. 21–24Google Scholar.

11 The number of assisted voters was very small. In my own precinct, out of 616 on the registration list, only six persons asked to be helped by a son or daughter.

12 In my precinct, 324 voters voted in the first three hours.

13 Some 20,000 employees in various Saar administrative services were permitted to vote in a special election arranged for January 7 and 8. The ballot was therefore changed for the plebiscite proper to guard against any possible use of any surplus ballots which might have been given out on the first day.

14 Many of these ballots were marked for Germany, but contained the words “gegen Hitler.”

15 The complete official returns by districts as given out over the radio may be found in Le Temps, January 16, 1935, and in the League of Nations documents C. 44(1), M. 19(1). 1935. VII.

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