Tirpitz Roused

Had Neptune risen from the vasty deep last week and climbed the tribune of the German Reichstag wearing a double nannygoat beard, the sensation could scarcely have exceeded that caused by the "maiden speech" of Grand Admiral Alfred Friedrich von Tirpitz.

The 77-year-old "Father of the U-Boats" is ordinarily content to recline at ease on one of the extreme Fascist benches in the Reichstag. There he is sometimes observed to nod. More often he strokes and fondles his forked beard, remembering, no doubt, how he was forced to resign as Grand Admiral by the Kaiser (1916) and obliged to take refuge in Switzerland after the War because of German popular resentment* against him as the instigator of Germany's eventually disastrous U-boat policy. Such memories, perhaps, have taught him to keep silent. But last week he rose to flay the Government for its conciliatory policy toward Locarno and the League. Trembling with intensity and striking the desk before him with a frail clenched hand, he demanded the withdrawal of Germany's application for League membership and the abandonment of the Locarno Pacts: "Beware! Oh, beware! The Government's ruinous policy is leading us straight into complete dependence upon France!"

Stresemann's Apologia. Speaking for the Government, Foreign Minister Stresemann reviewed at length the whole course of the recent negotiations at Geneva (TIME, March 22 et seq.) which resulted in the adjournment of the League without admitting Germany. "One thing the German delegation achieved was that, in all the discussion about where the blame for failure lay, nobody blamed Germany. I know how many telegrams advising us to leave Geneva were sent from home. I think we might have harvested very cheap laurels by coming home. But by remaining we won recognition of our blamelessness. . . .

"Before and during the War we frequently made the mistake of underestimating the importance of public sentiment as a world factor. If that was a mistake at the zenith of our power, it would have represented nothing less than a crime in our present situation." Fascist Deputy von Graefe bellowed: "Bah! These trick explanations! You are doing parlor tricks!"

Pounding with clenched fist, Dr. Stresemann shouted back: "I will not stand for such impertinence!" Recovering his usual calm, he concluded : "We are glad that the standpoint of all the powers concerned was that the Locarno policy must be continued. . . .

"It has been said: 'There goes German Michel to Geneva. What can he be but a fifth wheel, a satellite of France?'

"That is certainly inaccurate. What is happening is a struggle for our proper position in the League, and now that the League has taken the stand that it wants to have Germany join, this struggle must be continued. . . .

"It is my opinion that the recent League crisis was due mostly to the fact that through Germany's entry the League as an instrument of the victor states would be basically altered. . . .

"Germany faces a decision as to whether, owing to this League crisis, her fundamental attitude toward the League should be changed."

Promptly Chancellor Luther arose and shook Dr. Stresemann by the hand. Next day the Chancellor himself spoke* to much the same effect, and the Government received an emphatic vote of confidence by a show of hands.

*Before the War he was a national hero, because he was felt to be creating; the navy with which Germany would crush the British fleet and dominate the world. The populace turned against him when it was seen that the new German navy had only served to drive England into the arms of France, her traditional foe; and when it was realized that von Tirpitz's "ruthless" submarine policy had similarly estranged the neutral world from Germany. His labors to erect Germany as a sea power were indeed prodigious, ruthless, unremittent. He has been called the child of the navy, with the implication that Wilhelm II was its parent. In reality he sired both the navy proper and the U-boat. *During the speech Fascist Deputy Stoehr was called to order for shouting: "You better go to a sanitarium !" Next day he "apologized" by declaring that his words were "not intended as an insult but as a serious comment on the Chancellor's nervous condition." /-One of the finest and purest monuments in the always somewhat "wire drawn" German Gothic style. In its tower swings the enormous Kaiserc/locke, a bell weighing 27 tons and cast from captured French cannon. Beneath the choir is buried the heart of Marie de Medici, Queen-consort and Queen-regent of France, who died at Cologne after being exiled by Richelieu.