THE GERMAN "GAGGING BILL."

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4290, 30 April 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE GERMAN "GAGGING BILL."

Prince Bismarck has sustained another defeat in the German Beiohstag. His Parliamentary Discipline Bill, nicknamed tbe " Gagging Bill" in free English speech, hat been ignominiously rejected, the House consenting only to a proposal that an inquiry should be made as to whether any modification of its rules or standing orders is necessary. Prince Bismarck defended it a* drafted in the interests of the Beiohstag itself. In the course of his speech he urged tbat the fight against socialism was by no means ended —that its organisation seemed a* solid aa ever —the " exceasively mild execution of the law not having ruptured the socialist ramifications." Yet statistics are given in other quarters' whioh show that within the four months since the law came into operation, 191 clubs and societies, 64 newspapers, and 247 periodicals and pamphlets nave been suppressed, while 67 Soci_l-Democrats harre been forbidden to reside in Berlin, and four others exiled from Dresden and Munich. So much for the policy of repression. The withdrawal of many of these agitators to Sweden and Norway creates anew danger.