Budget

German Deputies sought "door no. 2"* last week, returning from a recess taken early in November. For them a jolly, pinky-faced, white mustached statesman had prepared a heavy meal of legislative fare. He was Finance Minister Dr. Heinrich Koehler. While the deputies recessed, he had drafted the German Budget, to balance for 1928 at 9,500,000,000 marks.

Since 1928 will be the dreaded "Fourth Reparations Year," in which payments under the Dawes plan must reach 1,750,000,000 marks ($416,500,000) for the first time, the deputies were in no hurry, last week, to consider the figures which explain how Germany can pay so huge a sum. As the session began, only minor bills were considered, and the Franco-German Trade Treaty was rushed through its third and final reading.

To the press, Dr. Koehler cheerfully declared his "highest satisfaction that he has been able to balance the National Account book not only without recourse to a foreign loan, but also without touching the 500,000,000 mark National Internal loan raised last year.

*Principal entrance of the Reichstag.