THE NEW GERMAN CABINET.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VIII, Issue 301, 22 November 1918, Page 5

THE NEW GERMAN CABINET.

WHO ARE THEY? ‘ A correspondent who has been ■ closely folowing the course of events in Germany has sent to the “Evenring Post” the following contributed i article on the personnel of the first j German Cabinet:— I The head of the Cabinet is Herr * Ebert (at present). He is described ' in the cables as a master tailor, of : Berlin. Witterle’s illuminating work .on the members of the Reichstag knows him not. Dr. Savolea now refers to him in his review of the ■ members of the various “groups” of the Reichstag, and though Witterlt j was member of the Reichstag for 16 .years, representing Alsace until the ■ outbreak of war, he does not consider him worth mentioning. (He is mentioned in “Current History” as being Vice-President of the Majority Socialists under the presidency of Schiedemann. —Ed. H.8.T.) Herr Haase, who has been allowed during th war to make bombastic speeches in the Reichstag against the Hohenzollerns, and who has had those speeches telegraphed round the world by the Hohenzollerns, is without doubt and unquestionably a Pan-German, and has nor been locked up like Diutman or Liebknecht, and because his speeches were used to give to the world the right of free speech in the, German Parliament, he has been .made Minister of Foreign Affairs. This is clearlv farcical Herr Schiedemann, the next it order, is. according to the Avaunt, of Borne, ■the Kaiser’s lackey. He G the •'arbiter of fashion” of the Reichstag, and noted for his curled iheard, his brilliant waistcoats, and his sumptuous ties. He calls himself a Socialist, but is described by Witierle as the ineffable Schiede ntann. He was used by the Militar} party during the war on many occasions. and is pliable and responsive to the Pan-Germans. and has a taste for rank and influential relations. Her Ditrnitn is. I bellev. a genuine jri.einl’st. and he is probably tie. man who was imprisoned for bis plain speaking and recently released. It :iii!-t l.e remembered, however, that he wa s aniontr the 111 Socialists who voted the war credit in 1911. and did not repudiate the violation of Belgian neutrality H'-rr Landberg, who has beer made Minister of Publicity and th' Fine Ari?, is a nonentity. I Herr Barth, who has been mad, •'Minister of Social Policy, whateve' .that means, is a Marxian Socialist who has repudiated revolutionart I methods

We later read with amazement and incredulity the news that Herr Erzberger and Herr Dcrnberg will also enter the Cabinet. If this is true—and one must always preface one’s remarks with an “if, when that news comes from Germany—then it would seem that the Cabinet is “camouflage.” There are no two men in Germany to-day who more fully represent tke reactionary Junkers and the Kaiser than Erzberger and Dernberg. They are typically Prussian in their ideas, and men who have proved themselves German to the finger-tips. Before the war Lieber, Spahn, and Hertling. the artisans of the rally of the. Centre to Pan-Germanism, made way for Erzberger who, in 1917, in the Reichstag, said: “In 1905 we missed a unique opportu nity of finishing France, then completely disarmed.” Erzberger is a convicted and determined supporter of Imperialism, and was described by Dr. Liebknecht as a man without convictions but with plenty of appetite. ~ Matthias Erzberger was a teacher of Wurtemberg, who was first known in the anti-ducal movement. He soon saw that the Centre offered better opportunities than the Democracy. “At a day’s notice,” says Witterle, “he turned his coat.” A prodigious worker, with an extraordinary memory, he soon made himself felt. He brought about the dissolution of thn Reichstag in 1906, ind conquered Dernberg, who was Secretary of State, through his dominant personality and force of eharacter. He a.-pires to be head of he German Colonial Administration—who t.ev er that represents today. Me had made a huge fortune in speculation. His opponents say he. will end by compromising himself, md Witterle says that in the Verainsbank smash and the smash of he Real Estate Agent Jal.a he es•aned by the skin of his teeth. He has no nobility <4 feeling; he is loud, rude and domineering. During the present war he has been to Italt as .m envov and was not a iiici’cs*. Muller-Fulda is the only man who has been able to use him. and no one knows how he gets this I can only e:.'l this short sketch ay saying: Fancy a Haase or a Scheidemann trying to deal with Erzberger. Dr. Dernberg. the other cabled iddition to the so-called revolutioniry Cabinet, was (Secretary of State ' ■ f the Empire, is a right-hand helper ■I Hohenzollerns. and always :as been. With these few notes we ■ ■tay be better able to decide whe:her or not the new Cabinet is a genuine expression of a new order. I