The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1917. ANOTHER CRISIS IN GERMANY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3174, 27 August 1917, Page 4

The Dominion. MONDAY, AUGUST 27, 1917. ANOTHER CRISIS IN GERMANY

The stock opinion about political conditions in Germany is tint although a- great part of the populatyali is heartily " sick of the. war. tirfero is no immediate reason to anticipate a revolution which _ would overthrow ; the Kaiser and his Junkers and clear the way_ for an acceptable peace. A highly-placed American official expressed views that are widely held when he said rcceiitly: "It is well not to exaggerate the real meaning of Germany's mtcfnal strife on. her fore-ign policies or on her efforts in the war. Any changes that may take placo there would be much more important if they affected the military rather than the civilian; if they reached men like Hindenbudg and Ludendorff, for instance." The reservation here indicated has a bearing on tlie differences of opinion which arn now reported to have arisen between the Imperial Chancellor (Dr. Michaelis) and the Majority group in the Reichstag. There does not seem to be any doubt that a critical state of tension was produced by the Chancellor's attempt to repudiate the peace formula approved by the Reichstag last month, and it is said that a second declaration, in which ho adheres to the peace formula, has merely postponed the crisis Which was threatened as a result of his earlier action. At their face value, to-day's reports mean that the Chancellor has suffered humiliating defeat in a trial of strength with the Reichstag, and that his ]josition remains extremely insecure. Angrily assailed in the first instance for attempting to defy the Reichstag Majority, he is now accused of being a wavcrcr who docs not know his own mind, and it is quite safe to assume that he will find it anything but easy to either satisfy or overwhelm his critics as time goes on. Estimating the importance of these developments, however, it is necessary to take account of the circumstanccs ill which they arise, and particularly of the ground taken by those who have figured on this occasion as opponents of the Chancellor. So far as balance of strength in the Reichstag is concerned the Majority group has a comparatively narrow preponderance of volts, but it is considered distinctly possible that the adhesion of one or_ move of the parties at present outside its ranks may at any time make it formidable. In its composition the Majority croup is an alliance of the Centre Party and the _ Socialists. According to figures published a few weeks ago iii America, it controls 201 votes in a House of :ii)7. Seats in the present Reichstag are distributed as follow Socialists, 110; Centrists, 91; Conservatives, 41; National Liberals, '11; Radicals, 45; Poles IS; Free Conservatives, 12; anti-Si'inites, Kconomic (Tnion, 0; other parties and independents, 2-1. The leader of the Majority group,

Matkias Erzijeiigek, entered tho 1-ieichstag as a Social Democrat, but later became one of the leaders of the Catholic Centrist Party. Until recently he has been known as an upholder of tho German Government's policy. Visits to Switzerland and to tho Stockholm Conference arc held by some commentators to bo partly responsible for his change of attitude. The Majority group, in any case, is a party whose members have comc together with the avowed object of working for peace, hut this must not be taken to mean that they favour peace on terms' which would be acceptable to the Entente. The contrary appears quito clearly in the peace formula which has become a subject of dispute between the Majority group and the Chancellor. It reads:

(1) Germany is fighting for freedom, independence, and tho maintenanco of her territory.

(2) Tho Reichstag desires a lasting peaeo secured on the good understanding of all peoples. Tho forced acquisition of territory, political, economic, and financial disabilities are inconsistent with such a peace.

(3) The Reichstag protests against all plans for,' economic blockades, and demands freedom of the seas after the war. It advocates tlio establishment of an International Court.

(1) Whilst enemy Governments do not accept such a peace, the German peoplo unanimously agreo to continue tho fight.

This formula, forced ontheKeichstag and the German Government by tho Majority group, condemns by inference the policy and aims with which Germany entered the war, and the fact gives added importance and significance to the defeat now inflicted on the Chancellor. It is an event indicating that the power of the ruthless advocates of criminal aggression and conquest who have hitherto dominated German policy is definitely on tho wane. But for practical purp_oses.it is more important, mcantimo, that the Erzberger party, though it is at issue with the Ivaiser and his Junkers, and makes peace its.general aim, has not ycb shown any disposition to squarely the facts of the war. Its peace formula is indeed a manifest attempt to evade these facts. As a party Erzberger and his followers do not denounce Germany's guilt in beginning tho war and the numberless detail crimes which have since made her name a byword in the civilised world. Their _ peace formula offers no reparation for these crimes and no guarantees for the future. It is a particularly lame attempt to convince tho world that Germany has been misunderstood, and that peace will be established on a secure foundation by a return to the conditions which obtained before the war. It is unlikely that the most uncompromising Junker now hopes for peace on_ any better terms, and though there is no reason to doubt that the members of tho Majority group are honestly intent upon reforming the internal conchtions in Germany out of which tho war arose, it is pcrfcctly evident that they are not yet prepared to make honest reparation to the countries Germany has so bitterly wronged and sought to _ destroy. Even when duo account is taken of the prevailing belief that Eezberger has a strong backing in Austria as well as' in Germany, existing political conditions in the latter country hold attention, not as suggesting tho near approach of revolution, or even tho inception of an organised peace movement worthy of the name, but as indicating that tho old order— the order ill which tho party of militarism held undisputed sway over a subservient people—is crumbling and is doomed to fall. The consolidation of the Majority group, the fall of Bethmann-Hollweg, and now the threat to the new Chancellor, command attention not in their immediate importance, but as symptoms of the seething discontent which is gathering head m Germany, slowly it may be, but inevitably. In the words of a rcccnt writer: "The Imperial Government is now on tho defensive at home, and is compelled to deal in concrete fashion with tho growing dissatisfaction of tlio German people." Under tho pitiless stress of war conditions the education of the German people, and the realisation that they are bein£ leol to destruction by rulers who deluded them with vain hopes of victory, are proceeding apace. Political agitation, though wda-k and ineffective as it must be while 'it adheres to constitutional methods in a country with institutions as little representative as those of Germany, is one of many, symptoms that tho German people are a time of awakening, not perhaps in any wide and full sense to the merits of the war, but at least to the fact that they havo been betrayed. As tho Spectator remarked recently, from the purely military point of view we may fail to see how the war can be ended this year or next year. But (it continued) ono may draw some grisly comfort from the moral and phypica! degeneration which is overtaking tho Germans in punishment for their crimes. Whilo the. moral of the British troop 3 is as high as ever, that of their opponents is steadily declining. Food is not short in quantity in tho German trenches, but its quality has been reduced by fully one-third. . - . The moral war, the war of national souls, is already over ill the Allies' victory: the material war may drag ou nutil civilisation draws near to exhaustion. But wo do not believe that tho torment of humanity will ondure until, through lino after line, we have smashed our way by sheer weight of guns and shells. The moral rot, of which many signs are visible, must spread, anil so far weaken the resisting power of our chief enemy that he will seek to save something from the wreck of his country before it is ruined beyond all hope of recovery.