Adenauer Decides To Drop Strauss

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29994, 1 December 1962, Page 11

Adenauer Decides To Drop Strauss

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, November 30.

Dr. Adenauer has finally made up his mind to exclude the Defence Minister, Mr Franz-Josef Strauss, from his fifth Cabinet, “The Times” reported today.

The newspaper’s Bonn correspondent said yesterday’s consultations within the Christian Democratic Union marked a turning point in the crisis.

“A small patch of blue has at last appeared on the murky political horizon of West Germany, but no-one dares fasten too many hopes on it lest the storm clouds close in again,” he wrote.

However, Reuters quoted informed sources as saying Mr Strauss was preparing to resist the move to sacrifice him.

■'The Times" said the executive committee of the C.D.U. issued a statement after a two-hour meeting last night. The statement said Mr Strauss had made it clear that any decision by him or his staff in the “Der

Spiegel" case had been taken in good faith, and that “if any mistakes were made, he regrets them.” The statement said that Dr. Adenauer had given Mr Strauss no detailed instructions as to the action he should follow.

The chairman of the C.D.U. Parliamentary group. Mr von Brentano, explained afterwards that this statement cleared the way for a new coalition with the Free Democrats, “The Times" reported. Mr von Brentano said a

new Government would now be formed quickly. He said “implicitly” that Mr Strauss would not be in it. Reuter said Mr Strauss would attend a crucial meeting of the Bavarian wing of the Christian Democrats in Munich today. The gathering of the powerful wing’s Parliamentary group and party leadersip, which he heads, was expected to show how far he could count on solid support. Christian Democratic Party sources in Bonn said a definite decision on Mr Strauss’s future would depend on today's meeting. Informed opinion in Bonn said the burly Defence Minister, buttressed by his party’s success in last Sunday’s Bavarian State elections, is preparing to resist the move to sacrifice him, Reuter reported. The five Free Democratic Ministers, junior partners in Dr. Adenauer’s coalition, withdrew from it last week, saying they wanted to maintain the alliance but not with Mr Strauss in the Cabinet. The Free Democrats blame Mr Strauss for keeping the Free Democratic Justice Minister, Mr Wolfgang Stammberger, in the dark about the Federal police swoop on the Hamburg offices of the magazine, "Der Spiegel,” last October 26.