''Christmas Chancellor"

No General had been German Chancellor up to last week since the days of gruff ungracious General Count Georg Leo von Caprivi who succeeded Prince Bismarck in 1890 and is remembered by the Fatherland because he won her so much African territory, notably the crooked strip called "Caprivi's Finger." Last week the Chancellorship fell like a ripe pippin into the calmly outstretched hand of swank, sardonic, intriguing Defense Minister Kurt von Schleicher who is a full general at the age of 50.

Von Schleicher, the Machiavelli of modern German politics, had maneuvered party leaders and the President into an impasse from which the only exit was to make him Chancellor. Beginning three weeks ago with Adolf Hitler, the party leaders were forced to admit that none of them could find a majority in the Reichstag on which to base a Cabinet. This they could not do because President von Hindenburg demanded pledges in advance that they carry out his reactionary policies--policies which the 85-year-old President was advised by Defense Minister von Schleicher are essential to the safety of the Reich.

Haste in picking a new Chancellor was urgent because the German crisis had already run 14 days since the resignation of Lieut.-Colonel von Papen's "Cabinet of Monocles"; and because last week only four more days remained before the newly elected Reichstag was scheduled to meet. The thing to do, President von Hindenburg decided, was to reappoint his favorite protege, Chancellor Franz von Papen.

Arguing the President out of this decision last week was General von Schleicher's master stroke--though he personally said little. By means best known to himself the wily General induced about half the "Cabinet of Monocles" (including von Papen) to go to the President and tell him that German public opinion had become so set against von Papen that no Cabinet could carry on with him as Chancellor. The beauty of this argument was its "naked truth"--a favorite phrase of persuasive General von Schleicher.

Old Paul yielded with extreme reluctance. It hurt him to drop von Papen, his favorite, even on the advice of von Schleicher whom he trusts. In a blazingly frank press communique, Old Paul announced that he was acting "with a heavy heart. . . . I have repressed my own personal inclination to reappoint Colonel von Papen and I have commissioned Defense Minister General von Schleicher to form a new Cabinet."

"No Confidence!" Mention the new Chancellor to any Hohenzollern and the Hohenzollern's face will light up. General von Schleicher and ex-Crown Prince Wilhelm call each other familiarly "thou." They go to each other's high teas and staghunt dinners. But the genius of witty, companionable von Schleicher is to keep on good or at least civil terms with Germans of every party except the Communists. This genius was amazingly shown last week when General von Schleicher barely failed to induce Adolf Hitler to confer with him--the only logical subject of conversation being terms on which the Nazi (Fascist) Party might agree to support the von Schleicher Cabinet.

Leader Hitler actually left his famed "Brown House" headquarters in Munich and went to bed on a Schlafwagen (sleeper) bound for Berlin. In the dead of night he exchanged telegrams with two most militant Fascists, Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels, Party chieftain in Berlin, and mighty-midriffed Hermann Goering, Speaker of the Reichstag, who induced him to leave his train at dawn, meet them in Weimar. Apparently they told Leader Hitler, somewhat of a waverer despite his bombast, that the Fascist Party must stick by its announced resolve to fight any Cabinet not headed by Hitler. Soon Fascist headquarters officially announced "our Party declines any sort of toleration of the Schleicher Cabinet." The Socialist Party also officially "declined." The Communist Party filed with Speaker Goering a motion of no confidence in the von Schleicher Cabinet to be presented to the new Reichstag when it met this week. Out of 582 Reichstag seats the Fascists hold 195, Socialists 121, Communists 100. Thus if the Fascists and Communists made good their threat they would have a majority against General von Schleicher and if joined by the Socialists this majority would be overwhelming.

New Cabinet. Because all German Chancellors for the past two years have ruled in defiance of the Reichstag, dissolving it when necessary by Presidential decree, Chancellor von Schleicher ignored the theoretical odds against him, proceeded calmly to build his Cabinet. There was a chance--slim but a chance--that with well-hated Colonel von Papen definitely out, the Reichstag might be cajoled by Chancellor von Schleicher into adjourning until next year under the familiar German formula of a "Christmas Truce."*

Next most objectionable to Colonel von Papen in Germany is his former Minister of Interior, Baron von Gayl who is everywhere suspected of having urged the "Cabinet of Monocles" to scrap the Republican Constitution and restore Hohenzollern rule. Last week Chancellor von Schleicher avoided re-appointing Baron von Gayl, did reappoint in his Cabinet most other members of the "Cabinet of Monocles." The new slate:

Chancellor, Defense Minister and Federal Commissioner for Prussia/---General von Schleicher.

Foreign Affairs/---Baron Constantin von Neurath.

Minister of Interior and Acting Federal Commissioner for Prussia/---Dr. Franz Bracht.

Finance/---Count Ludwig Schwerin von Krosigk.

Justice/---Dr. Franz Guertner.

Posts & Transport/---Baron Paul Eltz von Ruebenach.

Labor--Dr. Friedrich Syrup.

Agriculture/---Baron Friedrich Edler von Braun.

Economics/---Professor Dr. Hermann Warmbold.

Re-employment & Agricultural Relief--Dr. Guenther Gereke.

The last ministry on this slate is wholly new, created by Chancellor von Schleicher especially to appease the Reichstag and the populace. Germany's 5,000,000 proletarian unemployed and the uncounted German farmers who need relief will be pleased--General von Schleicher hoped-- to have for the first time a minister directly representing them in the Cabinet. Their minister, leather-lunged Dr. Guenther Gereke, has been shouting up & down the land for years various proposals for ending unemployment which he calls collectively "The Gereke Plan." During the last Presidential campaign, when Old Paul made no platform speeches whatsoever Dr. Gereke stumped for the President, thus won the appointment he received last week.

"Christmas Chancellor." Germans called General von Schleicher their "Christmas Chancellor" last week, recalled that his was always the directing mind of the von Papen Cabinet, assumed that its policies will be continued with as little change as possible. Briefly these policies have been: 1) to secure armament equality for Germany with other great powers, either through decreases in their armaments or increases by the Fatherland; 2) to revive German industry by what amounts to Treasury grants (issued in the form of negotiable tax rebates) to German employers in proportion as they add to their factory staffs; 3) to block all Socialist (and of course Communist) measures, especially those proposing to break up the huge estates in East Prussia of German Junkers who are the neighbors and stanch friends of Prussian-born President von Hindenburg.

The cynical though witty brain behind these policies is constantly revealed by General von Schleicher at socialite Berlin gatherings, causes smartest, richest hostesses to "simply adore the dear general!" Characteristic von Schleicher mots:

P: "If I were Chancellor I would need only one assistant--a hangman."

P: "If submarines, airplane carriers, military air forces, heavy artillery and tanks are nothing but weapons for national defense they cannot be denied to Germany. If other nations fortify their frontiers with walls of iron and concrete, by what right does one think of denying Germany this protection?"

P: "I am a great admirer of the French Press"--this being the General's pet cynicism, uttered whenever a French correspondent is presented.

P: "I am deeply religious, not in the ordinary sense--I never go to church--but I am religious when I am face to face with fate, when I have to make up my mind. Faith will move mountains--and a nation, like an individual, needs something to believe in."

P: "We should not outlaw Communism in Germany. We can deal with those people better when they are openly organized." In Winnipeg, Canada, buxom Mrs. H. von Schleicher delights to talk about "my brother-in-law" the new Chancellor. "He is very funny and very witty, with a charming personality!" she bubbled recently. "But he believes in biding his time. He wants to see what others will do first. Kurt has always been like that."

* Nearly every winter since the Republic was founded the cabinet of the moment has been so unstable as to need a "Christmas Truce," appealing to sentimental Germans.

/-Office held by same man in "Cabinet of Monocles."

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