GERMAN PROBLEMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1921, Page 5

GERMAN PROBLEMS.

ECONOMIC STRUGGLE PENDING. THE BASIC TROUBLE. HIGH COST OF LIVING, By Telegraph.—-fress Assn.—Copyright. London, Sept. 4. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily Chronicle states that the negotiations of the coal-owners and miners have reached a deadlock. From the whole country come reports of demands for higher wages and rejected offers of employers. The few slight riots are all due to the advancing cost of living. Things are working up for an economic struggle, which will soon assume the volume of a national movement. The basic trouble is the Government’s agrarian policy, under which deliveries of grain at low fixed prices have been reduced, because the fanners are able to sell the bulk of their produce at the higher world prices. The Food Ministry is being compelled to bring its supplies up by means of purchases of dearer grain, with the result that bread has gone up from five to seven marks a loaf.

BAVARIAN RESTIVENESS. MONARCHIST PLOTTERS. I A GRAVE WARNING. Berlin, Sept. 3. Bavaria has taken umbrage at the Imperial Government’s preeaufonary decrees, as for example the newspaper prohibitions, contending that the Federal States should first be» consulted.

There was plain speaking at a meeting of the Reichstag by the Vigilance Committee, which supervises affairs during the Parliamentary recess. Heir Dittman (Independent) described Munich as the headquarters of the Monarchist plotters, to which a Bavarian delegate retorted that Bavaria was accustomed to be governed from Munich, not from Berlin. He warned the latter not to draw the bow too tightly. Herr Wirth created a sensation, by condemning the threatening tone of the Bavarians, stating that tension between the working population and the parties on the Right was enormous. He left to the Assembly to discover where the responsibility lay.

GOVERNMENT GAINS RESPECT. BACKED BY LABOR. I London, Sept. 4. The firmness of the German Government in suppressing the Monarchist and reactionary movement has gained them | much popular respect, which hitherto has been somewhat lacking. It has also proved that German Labor, both moderate and extreme, supports the Government in upholding the Republic.

The Allies regard favorably the strengthening of Herr Wirth’s Ministry, because it is a guarantee that the Government will carry out the Versailles Treaty.

A FALSE RUMOR. OF EX-KAISER’S ESCAPE. London, Sept. 3. A report telegraphed from Frankfurt, but since contradicted, that the cxKaiser has escaped by' aeroplane to Germany, caused some consternation in Europe, but was sceptically received in London, the Press regarding him .us a spent force and unlikely to attempt any monarchial coup. Several correspondents sent to Doorm to inquire report that they saw the exin the grounds, which are still guarded by night and day by Dutch troops and police to guard against the possibility of escape.