IN GERMANY

Hokitika Guardian, 2 April 1930, Page 3

IN GERMANY

CABINET’S NEW OAT’H. • % ' fUnited Press Association—By Kleeti ir Telegraph—Copyright. 1 "■& BERLIN, April There was a remarkable changed.in the lorm of allegiance to the teprman Hepul'die initiated when the new Cabinet took the oath of office in tl|e presence of President Von burg at the Presidential Palace. The new oath is: “I pledge my-| self to devote all my power to the! welfare of the German people, constitution, and law, and to fulfil .my duties conscientiously,, and to. ; con-, duct my business impartially, ■ with justice to every person.’’ ~y. The earlier oath read: -“I 'plqdm* loyalty to the constitution* obedience to the laws, and the conscientious fulfilment of my office duties.”

The change, of the rath, especially the reference to the welfare of the German people, is held to mean that the new Cabinet, if .itCan only. count on a precarious majority in the Reichstag, will not lirsO-to to resort lo dictatorial methods, if these are necessary. Herr Trevarianus, the Minister for the Occupied Territories, stated tlun the Cabinet was ready to. collaborate with the Reichstag but that it cannot allow votes of “no confidence.” It will not allow parliamentary defeats to interfere with the fulfilment of its duty. The Minister also referred to tin readiness of the Cabinet to resort to Article Forty-eight of the Constitution, which permits the President to grant the members of the Cabinet dictatorial powers. It is manifest that .the. Cabinet must be defeated in the ~. Reichstag unless it obtains the supnort oT 'stime of the sixtv-five Nationalist deputies, as otherwise it will be in a minority of eleven, it having only 207 votes, compared with 2IS Communists. Socialists and Fascists, who are in the Opposition. 1