the „Deutsche Saar“ (D.P.S., at present weekly but soon to be twice weekly) is
printed at Merzig and the D.S.P. newspaper which is to be a daily publication and
the first number of which should appear on August 9 is to be printed in Dudweiler,
about 4 miles outside Saarbrücken. These parties have been unable to obtain
presses in Saarbrücken on which to print their newspapers.)
5. The activity of the C.D.U. in the propaganda field has been rather limited
hitherto by the party’s failure to take a firm decision whether or not to vote against
the Statute, Now that the decision has been taken to vote against we can except
more forthright campaigning. The „Neueste Nachrichten“ makes pretensions to be
a proper newspaper, giving world news, sports news and such feature articles as
„Bolivian women are much sought after“ which oddly enough also appeared in the
same day’s „Volksstimme“. The „Deutsche Saar“ on the other hand is a Kampfblatt
pure and simple (if that is the right phrase in the context).
6. The C.D.U. has been put in an awkward position by the desire of its rank-andfile
to vote against the Statute. Such a vote by the C.D.U., the „Volksstimme“ was
quick to point out, would be taken by the outside world to mean that Dr. Adenauer
had never intended to honour the Saar Agreement of October 23, 1954 and had
negotiated it in the knowledge that the Saar people could be brought to reject it
after the Federal Republic had obtained her sovereignty, her entry into N.A.T.O.
and the other benefits accruing from the Paris Agreements; such duplicity by the
man who has been the cause of what trust the Western Powers have in post-war
Germany would cost the Federal Republic her place in the comity of nations. (You
must remember that the S.P.S., whose organ the „Volksstimme“ is, is led by men
who suffered imprisonment or exile under the Nazis and who regard all Germans
(outside the Saar) as being tarred with the same brush.)
7. The C.D.U.’s task has not been made easier by the article in the Bonn „Deutschland-Union-Dienst“
(close to the German C.D.U.) on August 4 urging them to vote
in favour of the Statute. This was hailed with much glee by the „Volksstimme“ and
the „Saarländische Volkszeitung“ (with the „Saarbrücker Zeitung“ nodding a nominally
neutral head in approval) while spokesmen of the D.S.P. and D.P.S. were
moved to strong denunciation of this interference by an outside organisation in the
affairs of the Saar. The „Neueste Nachrichten“ however laid the emphasis on the
remark in the „Deutschland-Union-Dienst“ to the effect that the Hoffmann-Hector
govemement should now at long last be paid off and that political conditions in the
Saar were unbearable. It is interesting that the „Neueste Nachrichten“ has seen fit
to quote in this context the remark by Dr. Adenauer in his speech in the Bundestag
on February 2 520 - „wir darauf ausgehen, die beiden /Grandval und Hoffmann/ zu
2(1 Dritte Lesung der Pariser Verträge im Deutschen Bundestag am 25.2.1955; Adenauers Rede
in: Stenographische Berichte, 2.Wahlperiode, S. 3912 f.
516
