GERMAN NEWS.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 December 1924, Page 3

GERMAN NEWS.

[Reuters Telegrams.] GERMAN EDITOR SENTENCED. BERLIN Dei ember 23. The Magdeburg Court senleiiced to three months imprisonment, llerr Itotliardt, editor of a provincial newspaper, for libelling .President Ehert. who was accused of helping to prolong the innnitiou workers strike in 1918 and publicly urging the workers not to respond W) the military order to join the army. GERMANY WHINING. RERIJX, 'December 23. The German Government's note to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations, supporting its eontention that in the event of Germany joining the League she should be excused from the obligation involved in Article sixteen of the Covenant laying down the procedure of members of the League against any State breaking the Covenant. The .Vote dwells on the disarmament of Germany whose armies number only one hundred thousand, while her neighbouring States with a smaller population than Germany possess in ill'll larger armies. For example one such State with a population of under forty millions has an army of seven hundred thousand. LIBELLED PRESIDENT. LONDOX, ei ember 21.

The Berlin correspondent of thr “Morning Post" rei>orts that a case at Magdeburg, in which an obscure journalist "as trit'il for lihellinj' President Ebert in a little-known pericdieal, is assuming great jmliliral iniportaneo. The Nationalists used the ease through, out in the most cunning manner to carry out their regular policy of discrediting the .Socialists. The deeisii m in the ease was most curious. The journalist was imprisoned for insulting the highest official in the Reich, hut the libel was held to he partially justifiable on the ground that President Ebert's connexion. with the munition workers’ strike in January, 1918, was technically trcn.sonahe. The most rcmnrkahle evidence tenderoil was a letter written to President Ebert in December, 1918, in which General llindenhurg jfa.iil a. tribute to President Elbert as a ‘‘loyal German" and said: The fate of the nation is in your hands. I and the whole army are ready to support you unreservedly. BERLIN. December 2.1. The Court imposed a- sentence of three mouths’ imprisonment on lJolhnrdt, the editor for libel, and also for publicly urging the workers not to respond to the military order to join the army.