GERMAN POLITICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19977, 20 December 1926, Page 11

GERMAN POLITICS

THE GOVERNMENT DEFEATED. NATIONALISTS SUPPORT SOCIALISTS. (Preaa Association— By Telegraph—Copyright.) BERLIN, December 17. The Reichstag, by 249 votes to 171, passed a vote of no-confidence in the Government, which has resigned. The Government’s defeat was due to the Nationalists unprecedentedly supporting the Socialists, despite President Hindenburg’s .equest to Count Westarp, the Nationalist leader, to refrain from voting, because a stable Government was essential in view of the negotiations with Britain and France. Count Westarp, speaking in the course of the debate on the no-confidence motion, expressed the opinion that it was time a Government was in power which possessed a majority in the Reichstag. Negotiations for forming a new Government will begin on January 6. The Cabinet is carrying on in the meantime. The. Nationalists are anxious to participate in the Government, but it is believed that whatever Cabinet is in power Dr Strcsomann will remain Foreign Secretary, with an unchanged foreign policy.— A. and N.Z. Cable. CHARGE AGAINST REICHSWEHR. EXPORT OF ARMS ALLEGED. BERLIN, December 17. (Received Dec. 18, at 5.5 p.m.) The Communist Pieck, speaking in the Prussian Diet, declared that the Rcichswchr had not received munitions from Russia, but from Sweden and, Finland. He alleged that the Reichwchr had exported arms to Hungary, Turkey, the Chinese counter-revolutionaries, and Ireland. —A. and N.Z. Cable.