The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13th, 1921. GERMAN POLITICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 December 1924, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 13th, 1921. GERMAN POLITICS.

lUK election lately held in Germany was of special importamc, being the first appeal to the people since the ncceptanee ol tile Dawes Settlement by the Government. Politics were thus in the molting jxit. The result favors the maintenaiiee of the Republic ami a peaceful .settlement with the Allies. I his broad result is thcerfore satislaetory. As a contemporary | mills out with a gain of l".l seats, (lie Social Democrats have added nearly encIbird to their | re-election strength. Smaller gains have been made by the 'People's Party, the Democrats and the Centre Party. The principal losses have been incurred by the Communists ami by tlie l.ndemlorff group, otherwise known as the Freedom Parly. 1 bis last is a combination of extreme Nationalists and monarchists who would like to relegate to the scrap-heap both the Treaty ol Versailles and the Dawes reparation scheme. Although the result ol tlie election amounts generally to an endorsement of the Dawes plan, and implies that the parties of violence and reaction arc losing ground, it does not by any means remove all the obstacles to the creation of a stable Government in Germany. Any new Government formed must still depend for support on a coalition of parties. The Social Democrats, the strongest individual party, hold only about half tlie scats that would he needed to give them an independent majority. As the Reichstag is now constituted, no Government can hold office unless it is either supported or tolerated by the Social Democrats, but any practicable coalition must be supported also by parties which occupy middle ground between the Social Democrats and the Nationalists (the second strongest party in the Reichstag) and are perhaps as

much or as little inclined to co-operate with one of the parties as with the other. Though they arc generally a monarchist and agrarian party, the position of the Nationalists is at present a little indefinite. They fought the elections of May last as outright opponents of the Dawes .scheme, hut later so far modified their hostility as to 'permit the passage of the legislation in which Germany complied with the conditions laid down by the Allies with reference to a reparations settlement. As the price of the unwilling support they gave to the Government in this matter, the Nationalists demanded four Ministerial portfolios. After various attempts to reconstruct his Government, the Chancellor (ITerr Marx) found it necessary to go to the

country. Either Herr Marx or Home alternative leader "ill now have the option of forming a Government from which the Nationalists will he excluded hut there are still serious difficulties to be overcome. The Social Democrats agree with the middle ground parties in .supporting the reparations settlement. but are at odds with these parties over questions of taxation, and the regulation of labour conditions, particularly the demand for the eight-hour day. A coalition of the Social Democrats. the People’s Party, the Democrats and the Centre Party would have a big working majority over all the parties combined. It seems rather unlikely. however, that these four parties can he brought together. The People’s Tarty, for instance, is ostensibly of moderate conservative views, but its leader, ITerr Stresemann, is l/olieved to strongly favour a fusion with the Nationalists. Indeed there were expectations that he would enter the election campaign which has just concluded as a supporter of the Nationalist leaders. The Centre Party is a body of mixed composition. One section of its membership favours the interests of big capitalists and agrarians, while the other takes the Labour view. Somewhat similar divisions are apparent in the ranks of the Democrats. Even where the parties are generally agreed in upholding the reparations settlement, they are at variance in regard to the distribution of the burdens entailed. Summing up the position from this standpoint, one writer observed recently : —"'Wlmt most

immediately concerns the future of Germany at present is the position of the Right- when the momentous question comes up of whether or not the reparations cost "ill ho home by the possessing classes alone, or whether by the oblique methods of a longer working day, and protection for foodstuffs, the working classes will l>c called upon to take up half at least of them.” This question is not in dispute only between the Nationalists and the Social Democrats. Tt raises difficulties also between the Social Democrats and the middle ground parties with whom they might otherwise co-operate, and the prospects of setting up a stable coalition are correspondingly doubtful. The election, however, has strengthened those parties in Germany which broadly favour a peaceful settlement with the Allies and weakened the opponents of this policy.