THE GERMAN ELECTIONS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18707, 13 May 1924, Page 9

THE GERMAN ELECTIONS

EFFECT ON REPARATION. POSITION ST I'LL OBSCURE. . Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Reed. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, May 11. A message from Berlin states that the committee of the Socialist Party has un- . animously decided to demand a national plebiscite on the acceptance or rejection of the reparation experts' plan. The Socialists argue that the election struggle, embracing as it did 23 parties, obscured the reparation issue, upon which they consider it is so important that the people should be permitted to give a clear " yes " or " no." The Berlin correspondent of the Times states that the German National Party discussed the situation created by the elections. Proceedings .were private, l?ut there is good reason to believe there was considerable modification of the attitude of the party toward the . reparation experts' reports. Probably the influences within the party which, even during the election were making themselves felt on the ffide of moderation, made further headway. It cannot be said any longer that the Nationalists 1 are flatly against a continuation of the foreign policy pursued by the late Government. " The situation was put somewhat j epigrammatically to me," says the correspondent, "by a most acute German observer. He said it will be most difficult indeed to get a majority to accept the experts' report, but that it will be even more difficult to get one to reject it. There is plenty of time for more moderate counsels within ' the party to prevail before i the Reichstag meets. So far Herr Ebert, the President, has taken no steps in the direction of calling on any party to form a Government.' '