A borderline area was the Saar Valley, the Palatinate and Rhenish Prussia. The French Government wanted that for Havas. Reuters was neither wholly unwilling nor enthusiastic, because Britain wanted a moderately strong Germany to act as a check on France. Finally, and subject to the Saar Plebiscite 15 years later, “they made a compromise by which Wolff Agency might serve there, but a copy of Wolff service should go to the Havas Agency, and if it was not satisfactory Wolff could be removed from there.” The victors were not averse to tearing slices of territory from one another, either, so within the winning combination some changes were made. Havas retained the bulk of the Balkans, but Greece and Turkey passed “into Reuters’ [Britain’s] sphere of influence.” Battle for Asia A.P. remained a stepchild during all this time. It obtained a free hand in South America, as already related. But in general, just as Great Britain was slow to recognize and acknowledge the unmistakably superior position of the rival American imperialism, so Reuters took a haughty tone toward A.P. requests for adjustments in their relations. Outside the cartel, accordingly, A.P. built up positions and alliances for an ultimate showdown. Inside A.P., Kent Cooper gathered allies for his more aggressive program against the still dominant go-slow policy of Melville Stone. While Britain was deeply involved in World War I, the U.S. greatly extended the American communications network. Monopoly in communications was deliberately fostered to “advance the national interests.” This process, begun during World War I and continued through World War II, is described in the previously-cited _Report on Freedom of the Press_.[B] As this study is financed by a _Time_ magazine grant and has semi-governmental, semi-official news industry standing, it is not critical of imperialist expansion. All the more weight must be attached to its admission that State and industry are one in communications and news-export. These new government-fostered monopolies now played an important part in the forward march of American news. Though A.P. had refused to do a propaganda-job under government control, it was not at all reluctant to let the government pay for A.P.’s expansion. This is what happened: The Far East was the scene of the first open clash with Reuters. Reuters’ absolute domination of world news produced some peculiar effects on American-Oriental information exchange. West Coast publishers, led by Hearst, were frantic about the situation. Cooper’s first ally within A.P. was V. J. McClatchy, California publisher who reflected the violent anti-British, anti-Japanese policies of Hearst. McClatchy, in turn, won the support of Adolph Ochs, publisher of the most powerful newspaper in America--the _New York Times_. A.P. was now consciously but cautiously working toward an ultimate showdown with Reuters.