Chapter 38 The Problem of the Saar Zone

The emergence of the French-occupied zone was something that was vigorously facilitated by Britain, and the war was not yet officially over. The United States, which is currently the strongest, is not yet as prepared as the latter-day world hegemon.

Next from the world to occupy how much interest, is still in the stage of two eyes, and even Alan Wilson can guess, the United States in the end in the heart is the spearhead of the former world hegemony of the British Empire, or aimed at the momentum of the great victory of the book of the Soviet Union to swallow Eastern Europe? This matter is difficult to say.

In the case of Britain and France still have a large number of colonies, the United States decision-making circle within the emergence of such hesitation is also very normal. After all, no one can see the world in a few decades, the development of policy is also a step by step.

This is also Churchill vigorously improve the status of France, and even urged France to enter the United Nations as a permanent reason. To say that de Gaulle is very optimistic, whether it is the United Kingdom or the United States do not have this mind, but as said before, if not optimistic de Gaulle, no one can suppress the French Communist Party.

With nearly a million members in every corner of society, the French Communist Party is the undisputed number one party. They, along with their family and friends, were potentially a massive force in France, with a population of just over forty million.

As the representative of France had just begun to negotiate with Alan Wilson about the expected division of the French-occupied territories and when exactly they would be in the occupied territories.

“Pierre, we’ve got to restore a certain amount of post-war order to Germany, haven’t we? Otherwise there’s no point in going in. For the time being, it’s up to our two countries, and the American side, to keep the Occupation Zone up and running with a basic economy.” Alan Wilson crossed his fingers to tell his difficulties, “Or do we walk over there and go in with everything, and the soldiers go in to graze? It takes time for military control to restore order too, even the Prime Minister and President Roosevelt can’t do anything about it.”

“Well, while you were still at sea, President Roosevelt had fallen ill and died, and now the President of the United States is Truman.” Ivor, who was beside Alan Wilson, coughed softly and whispered a reminder.

“The reasoning is still the same.” Allen Wilson proved with practical actions, as long as he himself does not feel embarrassed, embarrassed is others, he was still at sea did not arrive in London, do not know the United States changed the president how normal.

The French representatives across the table, but did not pay attention to the movement on this side, but communicate with each other, apparently there are other issues, after a while Pierre Le Mans, carefully communicated, “In addition to the issue of the time of the advance of the French-occupied areas, we have another thing, which is also a great voice within the government at present, this matter, if we can obtain the support of the United Kingdom, France will be be grateful.”

“Pierre you may speak.” Eiffel glanced at Alan Wilson and in an encouraging voice addressed the Frenchman across the table.

“On the question of the Saar protection collar, a large voice in the government believes that the potential for a war that might be waged after Germany should be completely destroyed, and that is the opinion of the majority of the people. Britain is on our side in the matter of the French occupied territories, and I believe this is a matter our allies will not refuse.” Pierre Le Mans said while keeping a close eye on the reactions across the table.

Allen Wilson’s side glanced at each other, this topic was out of the blue, he simply did not know what the Saar protection territory was, Ai Fuer greeted the people to bring in a map, this side of the British representative abroad only found the place the other side was talking about.

World War II just ended, France’s attitude towards Germany, and the end of World War I exactly the same, simply put: Germany must die! And the main concern of France’s post-war punishment of Germany was the question of the disposition of the Saar and Ruhr regions of Germany. And it was strongly opposed to the creation of a new German central government.

If a suitable template can be found in history, and it happens to be, it is the state of Germany before reunification. The Holy Roman Empire, as it was, best served the interests of the French.

The Saarland is on the German-French border, next to the famous Alsace Lorraine. This place is very small, only two thousand five hundred square kilometers less than, but there are nearly a million people, more importantly it has nearly ten billion tons of coal reserves as well as ten million tons of annual production, once allocated to France, France in the production capacity of steel and coal, will be on a par with pre-war Germany, the two countries in the scale of the industry will be on a par.

Even France has prepared to say, the history of France’s strong time, Germany’s predecessor, the Holy Roman Empire suffered greatly, the Saarland had been occupied by France many times, the occupation of the Saarland said is since ancient times ……

“Uh, Mr. Pierre.” Alan Wilson’s brain turned sharply, quickly organizing the language, “As we all know, although Britain and France have not always appeared as allies, but in the past hundred years, we have jointly dealt with the threat of war many times, from the Far East to the Crimea, not to mention the two recent world wars, so I do not want to say anything more in the relationship between the two countries above. It’s just that the issue of the Saarland is beyond my current remit, and those of us who are stationed abroad have to submit France’s views to the Foreign Office and then wait for a response, which is all part of the necessary process.”

“As Alan said, it’s all necessary.” Avril immediately took over and continued on, “And the issue can be very complicated, the main resistance at the moment is not London, London and Paris have a friendship cemented in blood, but we don’t really know what the Americans mean. According to the negotiations at the Yalta Conference, among the partitioned occupations, including Bavaria in southern Germany all the way to the German-French border, are under the control of the American military, and where the American military is in charge now, there is nothing we can do to help even if we wanted to.”

“In the final analysis, it may be necessary to communicate more with the Americans.” Alan Wilson concluded with a concluding remark, meaning that it was useless to talk to us about this, the Saar district was currently in the midst of American soldiers’ occupation.

The American army, not the British, was responsible for the occupation of the Saar and political agitation in the area was strictly forbidden. On the other hand the position of France among the Allies after WWII is far less than the position of the France that was in the Entente at the end of WWI.

Even now Britain’s efforts to prove to the U.S.S.R. that France deserved the status of a victorious nation had little effect.

Of course things were not completely unresolved, the other side was just trying to solicit Britain’s understanding, Allen Wilson spoke, “It depends on whether General de Gaulle is able to secure the Saarland among the establishment of the French-occupied zone.”

“I see.” Pierre Le Mans nodded, the French-occupied zone was formed by dividing out a piece of each of the British-occupied and American-occupied zones, and the British were allowing France to fight for it in the process, dividing the local area between the French-occupied zones at the time of the division of the French-occupied zones.

For Allen Wilson and Eiffel, also happy to push this issue to the Americans, to save by the Germans cynicism.