GERMAN REICHSTAG

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21273, 29 August 1932, Page 9

GERMAN REICHSTAG

FORTHCOMING MEETING VIOLENT SCENES LIKELY PRESIDENCY OF CHAMBER WOMAN RED'S RIGHT OPPOSITION CERTAIN By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Received August 28, 5.5 p.m.) BERLIN, Aug. 27 It is semi-officially announced that the Chancellor, Hcrr von Papen, is to visit the President, Marshal von Hindenburg, on Monday to report on affairs and receive a decree for the dissolution of the Reichstag. This is to be used at the Chancellor's discretion. It is regarded as certain that violent scenes will mark the opening of the Reichstag. The rules provide that the senior member shall preside until a president is chosen. The senior member is Frau Clara Zetkin, a Communist, known as " Mad Clara," who has lived for some years almost exclusively in Russia. Both the Nationalists and the Nazis declare that they will not allow Frau Zetkin to take the chair. However, she says she will be in Berlin on Tuesday and will be ready to preside, in spite of her age being 75 and the fact that she is infirm and nearly blind. A recent cablegram from London stated: The veteran revolutionary, Red Clara Zetkin, as senior member of the Reichstag, will preside, aays the Berlin correspondent of the Daily Mail' when Parliament assembles, until the new president of the chamber is elected. Although Clara Zetkin is 75 years old, she recently underwent rejuvenation treatment, and no on© doubts her ability to perform her onerous duties. She has built up a powerful women's Socialist organisation. She left the party during the war, as too con servative, but since 1920 has organised the women Communists and edited Communist papers. Clara Zetkin's claim to preside at the opening of the Reichstag until the appointment of a president has been,put forward on the ground of her being the senior member. At present she is in Moscow. The Communists announce that if her seniority is proved she will go to Berlin specially to preside. Der Angriff, the Nazi newspaper, angrily protests against " putting this shame upon the German people, that a Jewess living in Moscow and acting on Moscow's orders will open the Reichstag." Normally the appointment of a president of the Reichstag is slow ; Hatred of Communism may impel the parties to combine to supplant Clara Zetkin immediately.