Sarrail
MAURICE, a French general, the commander of the Sixth Army Corps at the outbreak of the World War. When hostilities began he was sent to the Argonne, where he organized the defense of Verdun, during the first GENERAL SARRAIL attacks made by the army of the German Crown Prince at this point, during August and September, 1914. In August, 1915, General Sarrail was sent to take command of the Allied army in Macedonia, with headquarters in Salonika. It was while under his command that the Allied forces in this region took from the SARRE (German, Saar) BASIN, a coal mining region on both sides of the Sarre river, forming part of the Prussian province of Rhenish Prussia and of the Bavarian Palatinate. Its area is approximately 751 square miles and it has a population of 657,870. The more important towns are Forbach, Sarrebruck, St. Ingbert, Sulzbach, Neunkirchen, Puttlingen, and Sarrelouis. The region is of great industrial importance on account of its rich coal mines. The political importance of the district is due primarily to the provisions regarding it contained in the Versailles Peace Treaty. In payment for the destruction of coal mines in northern France and as payment on account of reparations, Germany ceded the mines to France, the territory to be governed by a commission for fifteen years. For the provisions of the treaty see TREATIES OF VERSAILLES AND ST. GERMAIN ("The Sarre").