Election Campaign

The general election, which is to end at the polls on Dec. 7, began to make its thunder heard. &182; Chancellor Wilhelm Marx, leader of the Catholic or Centre Party, opened his campaign at Berlin by attacking the Nationalists (Monarchists) and their demand for the publication of a denial of Germany's War guilt. Said he: "If we strive to have the Versailles self-confession of War guilt annulled, we do so simply for moral reasons. It would be fatal selfdelusion to believe that, if we succeeded in having that self-confession annulled, we should be liberated from the obligations of the Versailles Treaty."

P:The notorious Junker, Count Westarp, denied, with much heat, that he had offered ex-Crown Prince Friederich Wilhelm a Nationalist nomination for the Reichstag.

P: Count von Bernstorff, onetime German Ambassador to the U. S., informed the Democratic Party that he would stand for reelection.

P:Only 14 parties entered into the election fray, being 9 fewer than in the election of last May (TIME, May 5).

P: Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz was thought likely to be elected leader of the Nationalist Party. Admiral Tirpitz voted for the Experts' Plan; and, if he becomes leader of the Party, it was said that the Nationalists would refrain from attacking the Plan during the elections. P:An incident only faintly connected with the elections came to light when 27 Bavarian Generals declared a social boycott against ex-First Quartermaster General Erich von Ludendorff because the latter declared that ex-Crown Prince Rupprecht, virtual King of Bavaria, had (TIME, Nov. 19, 1923). Further, he had demanded that the ex-Crown Prince should appear before a court of honor to defend himself. The Bavarian Generals demanded an apology and were said to have expected challenges to duels. General von Ludendorff has ever preserved a Ku Klux Klan attitude toward the House of Wittelsbach (that of Prince Rupprecht) because it is Catholic. "Ludy" is a fire-eating Protestant and pins his faith to the House of Hohenzollern. Nevertheless, he has had a remarkable following in Bavaria which he appears now to have lost. This seems likely to affect his chances of being re-elected to the Reichstag.