The Saar Plebiscite: With a Collection of Official Documents

Comprehensive and enlightening, this volume by the leading authority on international plebiscites will appeal to everyone interested in current affairs and in the tangled politics of Europe since the World War. Events move graphically and swiftly before the reader’s eyes as Sarah Wambaugh tells of the early history of the Saar, the arrival of the Plebiscite Commission, the gathering of its neutral staff to act as Kreis Inspectors and assistants, the coming of the international police force and the nine hundred or more neutrals who were brought from the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Luxembourg to act as presidents of the voting bureaux, the casting of the ballots, the transportation of the ballot-boxes to a central place under the protection of the international police, the counting of the ballots by the neutral presidents, the departure of the Plebiscite Commission to Geneva with the ballots protected in a sealed car, and the decision of the League Council. For all this Wambaugh had unusual opportunities of observation so that her book offers not only a highly expert study in political science but a firsthand account of one of the most important events in modern European history. The Appendix presents a complete collection of the official documents.