Letting Go

Germany let go of the bull's tail last week. Banks were allowed to reopen fully. German statesmen sighed with relief, for nothing much happened. Not only were there no runs, but for the first two or three days correspondents were proudly told that deposits were actually larger than withdrawals. German statesmen played their hand shrewdly. During the three weeks that Germany has been under partial moratorium the Government investigated every bank that seemed to be in serious trouble. Deposits of the closed Danat Bank were guaranteed. The Government bought 75%, of the stock of the great Dresdner Bank. As a last move to prevent runs 8% was promised on all new deposits. That did the trick. Tellers reported no more business than usual on a midsummer day; huge bundles of unused banknotes were returned to the Reichsbank.

Wheat 6 Cotton. There was a flurry in German and U. S. business circles over the Sackett-Hoover suggestion to sell U. S. surplus wheat and cotton to Germany on credit. Germany rejected the original U. S. offer fortnight ago, countered with an offer of her own last week to buy 600,000 bales of cotton, later offered to buy 600,000 tons of wheat. In Washington the Federal Farm Board had an all-day meeting and in turn rejected the German cotton offer as too low. Sensible German businessmen were not surprised.

Plebiscite. It did not seem possible for hard-ridden Germany to avoid some sort of crisis for more than a few days. No sooner had the reopening of the banks passed off quietly than German statesmen were up to their necks on the problem of the Prussian plebiscite.

Prussia is two-thirds of Germany. Her legislature has 450 members, nearly as big as the Reichstag (577 seats). Hitlerites, members of the Stahlhelm and other extreme Nationalists recently rushed through a bill calling for a plebiscite on the question: Should the Prussian Diet be dissolved immediately as unrepresentative of Prussian opinion? The Reich Government fought it bitterly, for if the Hitlerites should gain control of the Diet it would be comparatively simple for them to gain the Reichstag as well and form a new government. Hitlerites urging the referendum were suddenly joined by their old enemies the Communists, on the theory that anything certain to make trouble is the proper thing for German Communists to vote for.

To win the plebiscite over 50% of the qualified voters in Prussia (roughly 13,500,000 citizens) had to scrawl JA on their ballots. The tactics of Chancellor Bruening and Premier Braun of Prussia were not to urge citizens to vote against it, but to urge citizens to stay away from the polls altogether. They made but one mistake. So serious did Herren Bruening & Braun consider the situation that they made use of a new emergency press law to force every German newspaper to print a manifesto against the referendum on its front page, in large type, without comment. This high-handed order won a lot of votes for the extremists. Even moderate editors sympathizing with Chancellor Bruning's problems considered it an unwarranted attack on the liberty of the Press. Worst of all. it brought a growling protest from Germany's Hero, old Paul von Hindenburg.

Bloodshed. Election came and went and only 37% of the Prussian electorate voted for dissolution of the Diet. Bruening & Braun were saved. But they were not saved without bloodshed. When Communists in Berlin learned that the referendum was failing the most serious street fighting broke out that Germany has seen since the Bloody May Day of 1929 (TIME, May 13, 1929) In Bulow Square police with rifles in their hands patrolled the streets near the Communist headquarters, Liebknecht House. Suddenly, as at a given command, spurts of fire burst from the windows, from nearby roofs. Two police captains were killed, several schupos were wounded. Riot squads tore through the streets. Searchlights flickered on the houses and the Communists, dragging their wounded with them, were driven from building to building. About midnight firing ceased. No exact casualty lists were published. Most editors estimated 14 deaths, about 50 wounded.

Other riots occurred. Policemen used their pistols at Kiel and Coblenz, at Altona, Harburg, Itzehoe, Meldorf, Halle and Breslau. In Cologne, Albert Heister, secretary of the local Stahlhelm, was walking home with a number of fellow members when they noticed a group of young Communists following them at a distance. The Stahlhelmers ran. took refuge in Heister's house. As Albert Heister turned to bar the front door the enraged Communists fired through the plate glass. Albert Heister slumped slowly to the ground with a bullet through his heart.

Somebody did not bother to learn just which train was taking Chancellor Bruening and Foreign Minister Curtius back from Rome last week. As the regular Basle-Berlin express passed over an embankment near Jiiterbog, 40 miles from Berlin, an electrically wired artillery shell exploded beneath it. Nine cars were hurled from the track, rolled down the embankment. Fifteen people were seriously wounded; miraculously, no one was killed. In the dining car a cook was hurled into a cauldron of consomme, critically scalded. Nailed to a telegraph pole near the track was a front page of the Fascist Der Angriff. Some one had scrawled across it: ATTENTION! ATTENTION! ASSAULT! LONG LIVE REVOLUTION!

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