SITUATION IN GERMANY

Waikato Times, Volume 89, Issue 13937, 12 December 1918, Page 5

SITUATION IN GERMANY

HOPES OF EXTREME RIGHT. TO SECURE OCCUPATION OP BERLIN. SOLDIERS SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received Dec. 12, 8.45 a.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 10. Mr Doseh Fleurot, writing from Berlin, says that it is the open wish of the Extreme Right to bring on such disorder throughout Germany fhat the Entente will be forced to send troops to occupy Berlin, as by this they hope to cause a reaction which will result in a dictatorship, thus ending the socialisation of tbe country. The Red Guards want a dictatorship by the proletariat. The Government's situation at present is most serious, but the troops seem to be standing firm behind the Government. The regiments freshly arrived from the front, on learning of tbe efforts to overthrow the Ebert-Haase Government, decided to delay further demobilisation until the danger has passed. This action has given the Government a sense of security.

ACTIVITIES OF RIVAL PARTIEB. DOUBTFUL SUPPORT FOR THE GOVERNMENT. (Australian and N.Z. and Reuter.) Received December 12, 11.5 a.m. LONDON, Dec. 11. The Rotterdamsche Courant states that the situation in Berlin shows m unusual reactionary activity. The Reactionaries have formed a National Party, which the Junkers and othar conservative elements have joined. This party pretends to support Herr Ebert, but is really thriving to regain power. It professes to favour a republic, but really hopes to prevent the firm establishment of republican priuciples. The party is becoming daring, and its journals openly declare that they will only support Herr Ebert until the National Assembly is convoked. Similarly the bourgeois parties have formed a peoples party which is mainly the old Centre Party, and they have also begun open attacks on Herr Ebert. The majority of the returning troops are genuinely striving to maintain constitutional government. They profess friendship for Herr Ebert and urge the early summoning of the Constituent Assembly, but there is daily evidence that a large proportion led by their officers are really reactionary. This element was responsible for the blooished in Berlin during the week-end. Meanwhile the Berlin Workmen's and Soldiers' Council considers itself the supreme authority for which Ebert Is merely the administrative functionary. Thus Berlin is almost an exact parallel of Petrograd in the Kerensky period.

SOVIET AND GOVERNMENT COOPERATION. (Australian and N.Z. and Reuter.) Received December 12, 11.5 a.m. COPENHAGEN, Dec. 11. The Prussian Soviet Minister, Herr Stoebel, addressing a demonstration at Berlin, bitterly complained that reactionaries like Hindenburg and his myrmidons still control the military machine. The Prussian Minister of Instruction, speaking in Berlin, declared that if the National Assembly did not secure a Socialist majority it would be dissolved and a proletariat dictatorship established. A German wireless message reports that prolonged deliberations between the Government and the executive of the Soviets resulted in an agreement for unanimous co-operation in the service of the revolution, to acknowledge the Government's exclusive right, and renouncing the idea of violently changing the Government.