CRISIS IN REICHSTAG

Taranaki Daily News, 18 December 1926, Page 13

CRISIS IN REICHSTAG

NO-'CONF IDENCE MOTION

FATE HAWS® IN BALANCE,

PARTY RECRIMINATIONS

Sy Teler-aph Frees Asss CspyrlflM. Received Dec. 17, 7.35 p.m. Berlin, Dee, 16.

A sudden political crisis is due to the Social Democrats submitting to the Reichstag a motion of no-confidence in tbo Government and declaring that Herr Gessicr (Minister of Defence), was permitting the Nationalists to make the army their tools. Herr Scheidemann was greeted , with howls of rage and cries of “traitor” and "scoundrel,” from the Nationalists, who accused Herr Gessler of permitting officers to obtain money and munitions from-Rus-sia, thereby thwarting Dr, Stresemann’s foreign policy.

Dr. Marx denied the allegations and. protested that a crisis must be avoided in view of the important international questions remaining unsettled. it is expected that a vote will be taken in the Reichstag to morrow when the fate of Dr. Marx's Government will be decided. The speech of the Socialist leader (Herr Scheidemann) to-day, created a sensation, and he was greeted with cries of "knave” and "traitor,” the uproar culminating in the Nationalists walking out in a body.

Herr Stresemann accused the Government of permitting secret co operation between the army and Russia, notably for the manufacture of German war material on Soviet soil.

He alleged that the Reichswehr had developed a state within a state and followed its own policy and laws. It had relations with an, aeroplane factory ill Moscow and with an : undertaking started far the purpose of establishing tho armament industry in Russia, to which officers had gone with false passports. Herr Scheidemann gave the names of four ships which in September and October arrived at Stettin from Leningrad with cargoes of shells. Such secret arming, he declared, had proceeded on a colossal scale. Socialists desired good relatione with Russia but they must be clean and honest. Dr. Marx, in reply, outlined the measures taken to reform the Reichswehr but declined to answer Herr Scheidetnahn’s speech, observing that its details related to past events which had been brought forward publicly before the Government bad time to investigate them. Herr Wirth defended the jxilicy of securing the Polish frontier on which most: of the .irregularities mentioned, had their origin. A Communist speaker' emphatically denied any dealing between (he Reichewehr and Russia.