APPROACHING A CRISIS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 107, 7 May 1909, Page 7

APPROACHING A CRISIS.

«&■' PRINCE BULOW THREATENS TO RESIGN. By Telegrapb.— Press Association.— Copyright, j (Received May 7, 8.10 a.m.) BERLIN, 6th May. The Imperial Chancellor, Prince yon Bulow, is determined to resign unless the Reichstag accepts the bases of his financial policy before Whitsuntide. Prince yon Bulow has to meet a deficit of about twenty-five millions sterling, arid has found strong opposition in the Reichstag and outside to all his proposals for increased taxation. The-, propo&ed duties on' gas, electricity, and advertisements had to be abandoned, and the intended heavy duties on estates are opposed by the Conservative and Centre parties. The Imperial Government is placed in a position of embarrassment. At present it is impossible to foretell' what consequences wity ensue. It is quite possible for the Imperial Chancellor to remain in office, even though the Reichstag rejects, root and branch, the principal Ministerial measure of the, session, because he is dependent, not on. any parliamentary majority, but solely on the will of the Kaiser. On the other -hand, Germany is in such pressing need of new revenue, that it will bs- difficult for the Emperor to retain in office any Chancellor who cannot cany some practical project of financial reforms. Prince-f Bulow's retention, of office up to the. present, in face of recent events, is 1 stated in some quarters, to have been due to the necessity of bringing safely through Parliament these financial proposals.