Evening Post. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1932. GERMANY'S MYSTERY MAN

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 136, 6 December 1932, Page 8

Evening Post. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1932. GERMANY'S MYSTERY MAN

Herr yon Papen has resigned and carries with him in his retirement an expression of regret and a compliment from the President of the German Republic in which probably very few other Germans are able to, j0in......... $h3 President parts with him with' a heavy heart, but his confidence is unshaken, and ho will never forget the period of co-operation. , The.'•'■.period of'v co-operation had lasted just six months. There were no expressions of regret on the 30th May; when the President parted iron! his previous Chancellor, Dr. Bruening, who had done a great work,fqr Germany and proved himself perhaps the ablest servant,,-with the exception of Streseihann, that she had ever had since the War. Dr. Bruening was virtually dismissed coldly arid even, it -seems, discourteously, and Herr vpn Papen was. commissioned to form ;' a Government of "National Concentration." Among his- qualifications were that he was a member of the Centre Party—the Roman Catholic Party to which Dr. Bruening also belonged—and a representative of its extreme Right Wing,; and that he .was also the chief proprietor of "Germania," the organ of the party. But the Centre Party promptly declared against the new Government, stating that it "declined to, tolerate the frivolous intrigue of constitutionally irresponsible persons on the eve of important international negotiations;" The political colour of these "constitutionally irresponsible persons" was disclosed when the Cabinet was found to include seven members of the old nobility. The,. "Cabinet of Barons" and' the "Monocle Cabinet" were amcmg /the unofficial titles given to .what the President had designated to, be a "Cabinet of National Concentration." ■TJhe first of,. Chancellor yon Papen's public utterances showed a, praiseworthy desire to live up to President yon Hindenburg's ideal of concentrated nationalism. He informed a meeting of foreign Press representatives that the tremeitdous moral and material sacrifices which had to be laid on. the German people could be. borne .only if it were possible to bring together in a, synthesis all the spiritual forces (or "potentialities '■ of the soul") to be found in Germany.. ■■. But that -an essential part of this synthesis of all the spiritual forces of Germany .-was- the synthesis: of all her : military; forces was revealed when the strong man of the Ministry took up his parable on the following day (3rd June). General yon Sclilciclier, as reported in the* "Bulletin of International News" of the 9th June, issued au order to the Keichswehr stating that he would devote his strength to making it capable of defending Germany's frontiers and ensuring the national security," .'adding that he was convinced that the existence of a compact and non-partjsan army woultl in itself suffice to maintain the' authority of the Eeichi How well General yon Schleicher has carried out the promise—or the threat—-conveyed in these words is a faiuiliar story. The constant appeals to the military spirit of the nation, and the steady progress made with her military organisation, combined with the demand for equality, and the withdrawal of Germany from the disarmament proceedings at Geneva have'revived and intensified the fears of France and seriously increased the chances of war. •'■.".■■.'■'■ But France is not the only enemy with which General yon Schleicher is preparing to deal. The most flaming of his utterances was in an interview with a Koenigsberg paper from which some extracts were cabled to us on the 7th September. ■ Tell the Bast Prussians, ho said, that we; shall defend their territory to the last;man, using the- sea route, if necessary, tp; supply East Prussia, which is separated by the Danzig corridor from tho rest of Germany, with all the means essential for defence. And in an. address to the journalists attending the army manoeuvres on the same day the General added:— East Prussia above all must deceive equality of armaments with Jior neighbours. She is particularly menaced by an enemy [presumably meaning Poland]. Such is the military fire-eater who

has for six months teen Germany's Minister of Defence, and has now become Chancellor also. The joining of the highest civil office with the highest military office in the hands of the same strong man might seem to be giving him an excellent chance both of establishing the dictatorship of which so much has been heard and of settling accounts promptly with France and Poland, and any other enemies of the Fatherland. Yet, according to the message from Berlin yesterday which reported the formation of his Cabinet, it is not "concentration" but compromise.that General yon Schleicher has in view. He has abandoned his predecessor's idea of revising the' Weimar Constitution and thus hopes to avert the open hostility of the Reichstag. At the same time we are given a quite disarming picture of his personal j qualities. General yon Schloicher comes, we arc told, of a soldier stock, but there is no indication that he ig' a militarist Junker. On the contrary, he: is courteous and credited with a reasonable spirit. His policy will.be directed to combating unemployment by improving trade. He has sought the- views o£ trade unions, and shown no disposition to flout the Reichstag. The man whom on the evidence of his; own words we have described I as a military fire-eater is here repreVsented as though butter would not melt in his mouth. Byron wrote of - the mildest mannered man That .ever scuttled ship or cut a throat. Is it possible that the future historian will write1 of General yon Schleicher as the mildest-mannered man that ever plunged a Continent into war? It is fortunately a surer thing that the General's manners are mild than that he will ever plunge Europe into war, and though six months ago he seemed to be heading for a dictatorship it is quite possible that he thinks better of it now, and that he is honestly seeking to patch what he had hoped to destroy. , For more than ten years General yon Schleicher has been Germany's "Man of Mystery," but for the greater part of that time he worked almost entirely behind the scenes. When he first came right out into the open as Minister of Defence in the Papen Ministry, his character: was sketched in the October "Current History" by Herr Ludwig Lore in a mariner whjicb. confirms the traits cabled yesterday:— This man is not a new figure in German .politics. Since' 1920 he has been the connecting link-between the Army and the Government. Ministers have come and gone} Army chiefs have ruled briefly and, disappeared; but yon Schleicher has always remained the irreplaceable expert in Germany's inner politics. Noyer was there •an absolutist police Minister move thoroughly informed concerning all things. Ho is acquainted, with every figure of consequence in; the nation's politics and knows how to handle them all, from the old-time Conservative and the military monarchist to tho Social Democratic Reichstag Deputy who may become a power to-morrow. No man in Germany has friendlier personal relations. This enigma of European polities, this "Iron Man. of Germany,", •is the petted darling of the social world, with scores of enthusiastic admirers and few intimate friends. His mairiage two years ago -\yas an event of first magnitude. He has that first essential of . the successful politician, an instinctive grasp of human psychology, that irresistible something that makes for quick contacts. Ho is knqwn for his amiable sense of humour and for his lack of personal vanity. He : has political opponents, but few personal enemies, for he has never sought the limelight, but has left to others the satisfaction' that lies in popular acclaim and public recognition. If this man can save Germany from Hitler without plunging her into war he will have earned a place beside Bismarck and Stresemann.