of terror" had been made by non-Nazi Saarlanders and by the foreign press. The complaints included allegations that the Nazis engaged in intimidation, "espionage, secret denunciations, kidnappings ..., ... interception of letters and telegrams, [and] listening-in to telephone conversations", among other things. In response, the Saar Governing Commission had to "promulgate several restrictive decrees for the maintenance of public order".

In November 1934, fearing an armed intervention by France, which the German armed forces of the time