MINISTERIAL LAPSE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 744, 17 August 1929, Page 30

MINISTERIAL LAPSE

GERMAN VISITS AUSTRIA WITH “WIFE” INTERNATIONAL SCANDAL A curious scandal in Government circles in Berlin lias been brought to public notice by a question on the order paper o£ the Frussiau Parliament by the Fascist National Socialist Party, says a London exchange. It is stated in the introduction to the question that the Prussian Minister of the Interior, Herr Grzesiuski, recently visited an Austrian town iu the company of a lady. In the visitors’ book of the hotel where they stayed he made the entry: "Grzesinski, Prussian Minister of the Interior, and wife.” The hotel proprietor lost no time in informing the Austrian authorities of the arrival of such distinguished

guests, who the following day wer» waited ou by the heads of the adminis. tration of the town, and officially we>.comed to its walls. As a result cf the mutual civilities this inaugurated, the local Press recorded that Herr Grzesinski and “his charming wife” had aroused the enthusiasm of all the Austrians with whom they had come into contact. At a time when the incorporation of Austria and Germany is almost a universal obsession with politicians in Germany, the news of the Minister's Austrian visit would have greatly interested the German public, but according to the Fascists, the news was suppressed by the Chief of the Press Bureau of the Prussian Minister of the Interior because he knew that Herr Grzesinski’s real charming wife was at the time living at Casel, abandoned by her husband. As Herr Grzesinski, who is a Socialist, is chiefly responsible for keeping in check various forces of upheaval at present active beneath the surface, the scaudal. according to the Berlin correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph,” is not without political importance. and derives further piquancy from the fact that he was formerly prefect of police at Berlin, and so to some extent the guardian of public morals.