BLAME FOR THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19200, 17 June 1924, Page 7

BLAME FOR THE WAR

A GERMAN DISCLAIMER. LONDON, June 6. One of the reasons why Dr Marx’s recent negotiations with "the German Nationalists failed was because he refused to demand from the Allies cancellation of article 232 of the Peace Treaty, which deals with Germany's responsibility for the war. This illuminating disclosure occurred in a speech delivered in the Reichstag yesterday by Count Westurp, the Nationalist leader, who, says the correspondent of The Times at Berlin, re-stated the Nationalist claims to be represented in the Cabinet on the ground that they were the largest party in the Reichstag. Dr Marx said that he entirely agreed with the view that Germany was not responsible for the war, but pointed out that file present was not a suitable occasion for taking up the miestion, which had far better lie left to future historians to decide. lie declared that he had done his best to secure co-operation of the Nationalists, but his condition was that there must be no change in foreign policy, and their assent was not forthcoming. The Socialist leader, Herr Lobe, said that it was just as well that the negotiations with the Nationalists broke down, because if the Nationalists bad accepted the experts’ report it would have aroused a degree of mistrust abroad that could never have been dispelled.