Im Reichstage

P:The Reichstag, by a small majority, approved a German-Spanish Treaty on the importation of wine. German winegrowers opposed the bill, almost wrecked the Cabinet. Finally, reason prevailed.

P:A sub-committee appointed by Count von Schlieben, Minister of Finance, to inquire into the situation created by the Experts' (Dawes) Plan, reported to the Reichstag Budget Committee that, unless receipts were maintained and expenses reduced, a financial crisis of the first order was inescapable.

P:The German Army loomed large in debates. Following a Communist attack in the newspaper Welt Am Abend, which cited wholesale extravagances, War Minister Gessler (Democrat) defended the Army estimates by saying: "Germany is disarmed. Germany cannot wage war. Germany is not preparing secretly for war. Those denying these self-evident truths are mad."

There was no denying that the War Minister was irate. His eye glittered, his face paled, his tone exasperated. He said that the Stahlhelm and the Wehrwolf, semimilitary, monarchic, organizations, were dangerous to the safety of the State, an announcement which the Socialists welcomed. But he insisted that Germany was not fool enough to dream of war. Said he:

"It is a great satisfaction to us that President von Hindenburg, who is certainly a competent military expert, has stated Germany cannot think of waging war. But Germany, while keeping within the limits traced by the Versailles Treaty, must fight constantly against allowing her territory to be the battlefield of foreign armies and against permitting foreign troops to march across it."

As to secret preparations, the War Minister admitted that Germany in the past had volunteer recruits beyond the Versailles quota and had manufactured munitions in defiance of the Treaty, but he declared that this was done to meet critical situations involving civil war. The present situation, he insisted, was regular and conformed to the treaty limits. "It is," he said, "absurd to talk about secret preparations. And they know this perfectly well in Entente lands."