WAR RESPONSIBILITY

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 155, 21 September 1927, Page 9

WAR RESPONSIBILITY

GERMAN REPUDIATION

NATIONALIST PRESSURE Bp Cable. —Press Association. Copyright LONDON, Monday. The Berlin correspondent of the Timas say 3 that although President Hindenburg’s declaration at Tannenburg, to the effect that Germany was not responsible for the Great War, was largely the result of Nationalist pressure in the absence of the Foreign Minister, Herr Stresemann, it is explained that Hindenburg is in the habit of punctiliously observing constitutional procedure. Certainly he informed the authorities about his intended statement, which, therefore, it may be assumed, had the Government’s approval. Th ere is a theory that all the members of the Cabinet supported the plan in order to appease the incessant demands of the Nationalists. The newspaper Tagliche Rundschau suggests that the Tannenburg ceremony afforded the Government the opportunity of freeing Germany from the charge of responsibility for the war for which it had long been waiting. The Tageblatt agrees with the President s repudiation of the charge of sole responsibility. It does not accept the assertion that Germany was guiltless, however. The paper says the German people were guiltless because they went into the field in defence of their homes, but the controllers of Germany’s policy cannot be acquitted.—Times