Pressure For German Cabinet Changes

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29984, 20 November 1962, Page 15

Pressure For German Cabinet Changes

(N ,Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) NUREMBERG (West Germany), November 19.

West Germany’s Free Democratic Party is expected to vote today for the resignation of its five Ministers from Dr. Konrad Adenauer’s coalition Cabinet.

The F.D.P. executive and its Parliamentary group are expected io endorse this move. It is designed to make the Chancellor reshuffle his Government, and to bring all possible pressure to bear on him without actually toppling the Government. Their stated claim is to make Dr. Adenauer dismiss his Defence Minister, Mr Franz-Josef Strauss. They say the Ministerial resignations will not mean the F.D.P.’s withdrawal from the coalition with the Chancellor's Christian Democrats. In week-end talks. Dr. Adenauer failed to heal the breach with the junior partners in the coalition. The F.D P. want Mr Strauss sacked because they claim he is responsible for the failure to inform the Federal Justice Minister, Mr Wolfgang Stammberger, a Free

Democrat, of impending police action against the magazine “Der Spiegel."’ “Dec Spiegel’s" offices were raided on October 26 after the magazine published an article about West Germany's defence potential, which was alleged to have contained defence secrets. Some of the staff were arrested and four are still held on suspicion of treason. A prominent Christian Democrat, Mr Hermann Dufues, a full-time party manager, urged the Chancellor in a surprise announcement yesterday to reshuffle the Government. This was the first evidence of support for a re-shuffle within the Chancellor’s own partv and broke the facade of Christian Democrat unity which Dr. Adenauer had managed to preserve during the present coalition crisis.