The Tenth State

On the first day of 1957, the Saar--that densely populated, industrially rich, and much fought over 898-sq.-mi. territory on the Franco-German border--became the tenth state in the Federal Republic of West Germany. The Saar's people speak German; its ground is heavy with coal needed by the French. The governments of West Germany and France, hoping "to settle the Saar question in such a way that it will no longer be an issue," agreed on political integration into Germany now, economic integration in three years (economically, the Saarlanders profited more under the French welfare state, with its family subsidies and widows' pensions, than they will as Germans). To France goes the right to mine 90 million tons of its coal for the next 25 years and an option to buy one-third of its coal production forever after.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.