The New Zealand times. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1920. GERMAN UNREST

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10604, 1 June 1920, Page 4

The New Zealand times. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1920. GERMAN UNREST

Tho postponement of the Spa Conference is a thing ominous. Ostensibly this because of the general election. The reason alleged is that disturbance during the election may bo avoided. But if everything was plain sailing, there would be no disturbance. Moreover, if it was merely' a question of war indemnity, there (;ould bo only fear of a degree of disturbance, insignificant in comparison with the great degrees of disturbance faced with success since tho Armistice. The election plea has not any stamp of probability—as is indicated by the course of ovents. For example, the air ought to bo full of election matters, but it is full of revolution rumours. The Minister for Order—we presume thatia the position of the "Commissary for tho -Maintenance of Order"-—declares, according to a message published yesterday, that "the rumours of a coming revolution, though exaggerated, •have a basis .of fact." This sounds liko tha official method of admitting an ugly fact. The commentators, whose ideas on the subject have also reached' us, take the ugly side of tho fact, and there is a certain amount of recriminatory confusion. The Minister says the revolutionaries are the communistic Labour party. The

"Tagoblatt" and the "Freiheit" insist on placing the burden on the shoulders of reaction, together with the detail, inevitable since the days of Soy 11a and alarms, of a list of persons marked for slaughter. One authority says the revolution will come in the night: another that it will' come from the East: a third that trainlohds of munitions are going daily to East Prussia; a fourth that 100,000 volunteers will march on Berlin. in fact, seems to be looking for disturbances.

What is evident in all these contradictions is that the post-war unrest has not yet passed from Germany. Tho manifestations of tho name during the past year or so will not be forgotten yet awhile. Tho Spartacists opened with every sign of truculenco, and tho whole world trembled with fear of what the dreadful giants of anarchy were about to do. But the new Government managed to quell these fire-eaters sufficiently to secure an interval of safety. That interval was broken by Dr Kapp, who played at revolution before a shadowy background peopled with Junkers, exKaiserK, ex-Kinga, with a big sprinkling of military and naval failures. He got ahead of the Government, whose Minister for Order had told a reassuring story much like the story of to-day's Commissary. But the Government took a leaf out of the Socialist book, and proclaimed a general strike. The strike proved general enough to paralyse the insurgent Doctor, and extinguished the revolution. It was then said that the military malcontents had been taken by surprise, and their only reliable troops, the Naval and Baltic brigades, went into camp somewhere in Pomerania, and defied everybody. The third outbreak was managed by the Government, which had survived the Kapp attack. Having shown its command of the proletariat by setting up a general strike against reaction, it proclaimed its inability to control tho proletariat in tho Ruhr region, demanded permission from the Allies to send troops . there, and sent them without permission. The French Prime Minister, however, who refused to be hoodwinked with the British and Italian Prime Ministers, took firm hold of the situation with tho assistance of Belgium. Tho French and, Belgians advanced, while Lloyd George talked with idiotic • pathos about not wanting to prevent tho Germans from policing their own country. Tho French General Degoutte, in command, reported that there was nothing for the Germans to police in Kuhr, and that the only consequence of the German intervention was, to stop tho coal passing into France over tho border, according to tho Treaty. Tho Germans confirmed all this by retiring from Ruhr, and proving that the whole affair had been simply a dishonest attempt -of tho German Government to obtain, contrary to tho Treaty, a commanding military poaition in Ruhr. AVhat did they want that position for? It » the same as asking, "Why do they object .to the Treaty? One might even almost as well ask why this unanimity of rumour in the direction of revolution? That uuanimity can havo but one bond. According to each other, every class in Germany wants to revolt. Naval brigade, Baltic brigade, Beichswohr, Volunteers, Junkers, Hohenzollerns, men of the Right, Left, and Centre—all were with tho Government in tho Ruhr episode. As before all theno were ready for their effort of uprising, tho Government failed to hoodwink France, they are all now behind tho Government. Why? The only possible reason is in order to fight

rather than complete the Treaty obligations. Hence the postponement of tho Spa Conference till after the general election. For "general election" read "the agitation for breaking or changing tho Treaty terms," and the situation is complete. As it in probable that all these malcontents mean fighting, it is imperative that the Allies enforce tho disarmament terms. This they signified they would do by keeping disarmament carefully out of tho Spa agenda. The hint has probably brought to a head the ideas of all these revolutionists, because it was a warning that if they do not fight at once they will presently have nothing to fight with.