Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1930. EFFECT OF HITLER'S WIN

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 68, 17 September 1930, Page 10

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1930. EFFECT OF HITLER'S WIN

The leave which Dr. Bruening was reported yesterday to have received from President Hindenburg to carry on till the 14th October simply means that the President has given him a reprieve for the minimum period fixed by the clause in the Constitution which says that "the"Reichstag must hold its first meeting not less ithan 30 days after the election." !Even if Hitler, with the moral support of the 6,000,000 electors who voted his ticket, does not in the meantime organise another "putsch" and j another march on Berlin with far better prospects than he had in 1923, the Chancellor's task is of such appalling difficulty that 30 days cannot be regarded as an extravagant lime allowance. When he was called to office at the end of March he failed in a task which was child's play in comparison. The Cabinet of Herr Mueller was overthrown because the Social Democratic Party to which he belonged objected to the taxation proposed for meeting a serious deficit in the Unemployment Insurance Fund. As leader of the Centre Party, which also had made serious trouble, for Herr Mueller, Dr. Bruening formed a Cabinet of all the bourgeoise parties; and, after a demoralising series of concessions and deals, and by majorities which fell at times to four, he induced the Reichstag to accept some of his taxation proposals. During these debates Dr. Bruening had hinted that in the event of defeat he would carry on the administration under Article 48 of the Constitution, which is' held to empower the President to legislate without the Reichstag in the event of a grave emergency. When defeat subsequently appeared inevitable, the Chancellor produced, already signed by the I President, an emergency decree! enacting the very measure then before the Reichstag. Pursuant to the same Article 48, this decree had to be submitted to the Reichstag at a subsequent meeting, and then (18th July) the Socialist resolution rescinding this decree was carried by 236 votes to 221. We are bound to j confess our inability to see any basis in Article 48 for this strange procedure, but, whether it was valid or not, the procedure was futile, for it ' only postponed the defeat of the ! Bruening Government and the dissolution of the Reichstag for a few days. From the standpoint of the Government it was indeed worse than futile, since it gave both the Fascists and Socialists a good cry for the elections. As the "Observer's" Berlin correspondent reported at the time,

That Hindenburg should have been called upon to intervene in a mere ease of taxation is the cause of the "Fascist" ontcry. It seems clear that the Nationalists themselves had provoked the step with a certain spiteful attempt to show the nation that the Parliamentary system is indeed bankrupt. The Socialist position is now a strong one, and there seems no donbt that Tvith I this slogan the party has no cause to ifoar the new election it was obviously out to provoke.

A Chancellor who failed so conspicuously in a relatively simple task has now to conciliate the Socialists who have been fighting him at the election with ammunition largely supplied by himself, and to do so without alienating any of the old combination. He has, moreover, to face an Opposition which will be stronger and far more intractable than that in the last Reichstag. It may indeed be doubted whether the ablest of Parliamentary leaders could make the best Parliamentary machine in the world work against such an obstacle as will be presented by the 107 Hitlerites and the 76 Communists elected to the new Reichstag. It is true that these two parties hate one another even more furiously than they hate any other party, and the electoral disorders which resulted in at least 15 deaths and 250 other casualties during the last few weeks were mainly the result of the conflicts between Fascists and Communists. But on one point these implacable foes appear to be in complete agreement, and that is in their determination to make Parliamentary government impossible, and it will be surprising if such experts in noise and violence and shock tactics, representing together about a third of .the whole Assembly, cannot prevent the other two-thirds from getting any business done. Nor will the Reichstag get much relief when National Socialists and Communists turn their rhetoric and other missiles on one another instead of on the other parties. The one process would impose just as effective a closure on its business as the other.

A "sinister possibility" of another kind is discussed by the "Daily Telegraph's" Berlin correspondent. What would happen if,, as we have suggested, Hitler revived under the much more inflammable conditions of to-day his project of a "March on Berlin"?

Sueh-a step, says tho "Telegraph's" correspondent, would almost certainly mean civil war, as even if tho army joined the Fascists the Prussian Government would organise tho State police in defence of the Bopublic, the police having all tho armament of the soldiery except artillery. The general belief, howeve-v, is that •while- Hindenbiirg is President the Army will stand, firm against tho Fascists. Though Hindenburg startled 'ihc politicians by refusing to take part in some or all of tlie evacuation cele-

bralions in the Rhineland because Hitler's "Steel Helmet" Association was a prohibited organisation there, his loyalty to the Constitution is undoubted, and it is satisfactory to hear of the "general belief" that, even against Hitler, the Army will be loyal to him. But we must not forget that, even when the polling was in progress, we were informed that "it is believed that there will be little change of strength in the chief parties." The German people had an unpleasant surprise on Sunday, and there may be more to follow. It is certainly time, as "The Times" suggests, to treat Herr Hitler and his 6,000,000 followers seriousiy.

Their ranks have been swelled by a substantial body of working-class voters. It would be foolish to disguise the undoubted anxiety in regard to the elections aroused in many European countries, especially in France. The fate of Parliamentary government lies largely in the Fascists' hands.

As the avowed object of the party is "to discontinue the policy of perpetually courting the favour of France" and to repudiate the Young Plan, there is something more serious at stake than the fate of Parliamentary government in Germany.