History of Smeets case

122 310 HISTORY OF THE SMEETS CASE. In April 1921 Smeets, the German leader of one of the separatist movements in the Rhineland, and therefore a protégee of the French officials, published three libels, (1) against the police president of Cologne, (2) against a German postal official, and (3) against the president of the Reich. 2. Proceedings were taken against Smeets under German law. These proceedings were in some manner delayed for some months but on December 5, 1921, Smeets was arrested by the German police on the ground of refusal to obey summons to attend at Court. 3. On December 8, 1921, the Rhineland commission acting under ordinance 70 ordered Smeets' release pending a final decision in his case on the ground that Smeets' claimed the benefit of certain provisions of this ordinance which pro- vided that no judgment or punitive measures should be taken against any person by the German authorities for political acts committed during the armistice period. 4. The German government protested against this action of the high commission on December 15, 1921, claiming that the case was not covered by ordinance No. 70. 5. Sentences were pronounced against Smeets on Feb. 15, 1922, March 3, 1922, June 12, 1922 and June 19, 1922, and in August 1922 the German commissioner in the Rhineland asked that the sentences amounting to 81/2 months imprisonment on all accounts might be put into force.