THE NEW REICHSTAG.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16607, 10 December 1924, Page 5

THE NEW REICHSTAG.

CONFIT.SION CONTINUES.

NO PARTY WITH MAJORITY

I Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. •BERLIN, Dec. 8.. Ludendorff was re-elected to the Reich stag.

No party has a clear majority in the new Reichstag, consequently the existing Government will cany on until the meeting of Parliament in January.

LONDON, Dec. 9

The Daily Telegraph’s Berlin correspondent, says: The polling leaves the Reichstag situation almost as ambiguous as before the dissolution. Apparently a permanent- Government majority is impossible, without- a coalition of the parties. which are as little qualified to lie down together as the lion and the lamb. All hopes of reviving the old Wirt-h coalition of the Centre Democrats and Socialists has disappeared. The present Cabinet cannot continue, as it is now more in a minority than before the eloction. Dr. Marx favors a, greater coalition of the People’s Party plus the Wirthites, but this has always hitherto been impossible, as the People’s party fundamentally represents capital, while the Socialists represent Labor. Botli sides claim a victory. Probably the Communists alone are really pleased. Their chief desi-ro is to see confusion and uncertainty, and this is likely to be even more marked in the new Reichstag than in the old, for the sobering influence of the Dawes report. is no longer an issue. There will be endless Cabinet crises, beginning with one of exceptional severity over the formation of the .Government.

THE RIVAL FLAGS,

A MESSAGE OF PEACE,

(The Times.) (Received Dec. 10. 9 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 9.

The Times’ Berlin correspondent says tho result- of tho elections offers two aspects, which must be considered separately. The rival flags under which it was fought were symbols, one for and (he other against the Republic. Tho figures show there is n majority in the country for a republic, hut at the same time that heavy forces are arrayed against it. The other issue is the policy of the late Government, particularly its foreign policy of fulfilment of obligations under the Dawes report.. Here it must bo. said there is a more decisive majority in its favor. On (lie whole, therefore, the election must be taken as a message of peace, with a strong dissentient minority.