ALLIES’ PROCLAMATION.

The following is the text of the proclamation addressed to the population which has been posted up to-day in the three occupied towns: The official representatives of the German Government have presented to the London Conference proposals showing that the German Government does not wish to fulfil the engagements it made when it signed the Treaty of Peace. In face of this attitude the Allied Powers find themselves obliged to enforce sanctions. Unanimously they have decided to assure themselves of new guarantees in order to force the German Government to execute the clauses of the Treaty. Consequently the Allied troops have received orders to occupy as a guarantee Düsseldorf, Ruhrort, and Duisberg. This occupation in no way constitutes a hostile measure towards the population. On condition that the orders, judged indispensable by the military authorities, are strictly observed no impediment will be placed in the way of the economic life of the region. Not only will the working classes have every facility for working, but the Allied authorities are ready to assist them to better their lot, and, especially to assure the food supply. The Allied Command counts on maintaining in the newly occupied territory a regime of liberty and order in which the prosperity of the country will be able to develop.

The proclamation is signed by the French Commander-inchief on the Rhine, General Degoutte, who has moved his headquarters from Mayence to Neuss, on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite Düsseldorf. The German Ambassador in Paris, Herr Mayer, has been called to Berlin in order to confer with his Government.

The rupture with Germany has aroused no kind of excitement in Paris. Inasmuch as it is regarded as creating a new and a clear situation between Germany and the Allies, without so far laying further burdens on France, it has been by no means unwelcome. This feeling underlies practically all the Press comment. M. Gustave Hervé says so straight out in the Victoire: “The news of the application of the sanctions,” he writes, “will be welcomed throughout patriotic France with a sigh of relief. For forty-eight hours we were beginning to fear that Mr. Lloyd George wanted to demand fresh concessions from our friendship.” The Figaro puts it in a different way. “In a word,” it says, “Dr. Simons gave himself so much trouble that he finished by wearing out the Supreme Council’s good temper. If by the rigorous application of sanctions the reparations problem is cleared up, France will owe a lot to Dr. Simons.”