money on deposit in Switzerland was for political and church use, and that large amounts were used in defraying the cost of his family's sojourn in that country; further, that the transactions had been legally made through banks. Thereupon Dr. Helfferich exclaimed: "I know more than you care to admit."

This testimony left Erzberger no other choice than to tender his resignation to President Ebert. It was promptly accepted.

Subsequently the trial proceeded until March 11, when the court delivered judgment. Dr. Karl Helfferich was fined 300 marks and costs because he had failed to prove one point in his allegations against Mathias Erzberger, namely, the latter's intention to denounce Helfferich to the Entente. But, on the other hand, Presiding Judge Baumbach declared proved the following allegations against Erzberger: "First, mixing politics with business; second, untruthfulness; third, impropriety; fourth, political activity to Germany's disadvantage."

SCHEME TO CONTROL RUSSIA

The Minister's discomfiture was completed on Jan. 16 by the publication of a letter written by him six months after he had signed the armistice, in which he urged the Germans to bear in mind 66 the reasons for this war," which he defined as a struggle for world dominion between Continental Europe and the Anglo-Saxon race in England and the United States. In his opinion

the

" between London and Berlin was game the same as that once fought out by Carthage and Rome. After disposing of France as weakened beyond recovery, he added:

If we succeed in keeping Poland down it will mean enormous gains for us. In the first place, France's position on the Continent is, in the long run, untenable. In the second, the way to Russia is then open. That is, even for a blind man, Germany's future. Russia is now ripe if planted with German seed to come into the great German future. Nothing must disturb us in the great problem before us. Poland is the sole but very powerful obstacle. Therefore we must not lose but continue our work ever keep before our

courage, ceaselessly, and

eyes the gigantic reward which we hope to obtain. If we succeed in hindering the building up of a strong Poland, then the future is quite clear for us. Then the Anglo-Saxons cannot close the road to Russia for us. We will undertake the restoration of Russia, and in the possession of such support we will be ready within ten or fifteen years to bring France without any difficulty into our power. The march toward Paris will be easier then than in 1914. The last step but one toward world dominion will then be reached. The Continent is ours. Afterward will follow the last stage-the closing struggle between Continent and 66 overseas."

DIPLOMATIC REPRESENTATIVES

Announcement was made in Berlin on Jan. 17 of the resumption of diplomatic relations with recent enemy countries by the appointment of Dr. Shtamer, Hamburg Senator, as Chargé d'Affaires in London; Dr. Meyer, a Bavarian Parliamentarian, in Paris; the former State Secretary, Dr. Solf, in Tokio, and Freiherr von Lucius in Rome. It was pointed out that as neither Dr. Shtamer nor Dr. Meyer was a professional diplomat the Foreign Office took credit for this innovation. Diplomatic representatives sent to other capitals were former Imperial Minister Dr. Landsberg, to Brussels; Count von Oberndorff, Madrid; Professor Saenge, Prague, and Colonel Renner, The Hague. Colonel Renner was military attaché rt the Dutch capital during the war, and was known as an opponent of the annexationist policy and of ruthless submarine war. It was also reported that Dr. Dresel had arrived in Berlin to take charge of American interests.

For the first time since the war a British warship saluted the German flag at Wilhelmshaven on Jan. 17, when the Malaya, with the Interallied Commission of Control on board, fired the customary peace-time twenty-one guns on entering the harbor.

COBURG JOINS BAVARIA

The formal union of the Coburg part of the tiny Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha with the State of Bavaria was effected on Feb. 15 by the signing in Munich of the treaty authorized by the people of both States. According to a

Un

the conditions obtaining in Bavaria. til such election is held, the Coburg Provincial Assembly will send three members to the Bavarian Landtag, who will have seats and voices in it and enjoy the same rights as the Bavarian Landtag Deputies.

On the day of the act of union the Bavarian Constitution automatically enters into force in the territory of the Free State of Coburg.

The judicial union with Prussia and the Thuringian States in the Courts of Assize and the Supreme Court is to be abolished.

The National Government is to be requested to incorporate in the national law a clause regarding the union of Coburg with Bavaria providing that the date of the going into effect of the national law will be set by an order of the Bavarian Government.

Other parts of the agreement regulate internal matters concerning the administration of justice, charity and welfare work, education, &c.

T

HE question of Germany's fulfillment of the Peace Treaty continues to be a source of extreme

difficulty and friction. In a stern note France declared in February that Germany, during December, 1919, had produced 10,450,000 tons of coal, and that, according to Article 429 of the Peace Treaty, she should have delivered to the Allies, notably to France, some 2,500,000 tons, instead of the 600,000 tons actually handed over. Because of this failure, the note added, the time limits for evacuation of the occupied territory were suspended; it also threatened reprisal measures.

In a statement issued on Feb. 16 by Erich Schmidt, German Minister of Economics, Premier Millerand was charged with misrepresenting the facts of the coal situation. The German coal output, Dr. Schmidt declared, was only half nor

mal; furthermore, if Germany delivered the 2,500,000 tons demanded by the French Government e would fall below 50 per cent. of her peace-time supply. In these circumstances, he asserted, the allied coal demands on Germany simply could not be met. "This coal," he said, "the French must leave us, if they are to follow a far-sighted policy rather than a short-sighted policy of revenge. * * * If she takes too much from Germany, France must bury her hope of further restoration."

REDUCTION OF ARMY

One concession which Germany received was an extension of the time limit within which her armed forces must be reduced. Premier Lloyd George shortly before Feb. 18 notified Dr. Shtamer, the newly appointed German representative in London, that the date when the Ger

man Army must be reduced to the prescribed total of 200,000 men had been moved on to April 10, and that the ultimate reduction to 100,000 had been set for July 10. (According to Article 160 of the Peace Treaty, the full reduction to 100,000 was to have been effected by April 1, 1920.)

It was officially denied in Paris on Feb. 20 that this extension of time indicated any weakening of the allied determination to enforce the fulfillment of Article 160. Both France and Great Britain stood firmly for the final reduction by July 10. General Niessel, former head of the Baltic Commission, who had been charged by the French Government to make a report on Germany's military situation, issued at this time a statement, based on an elaborate analysis of the German police and military organization, to prove that Germany was secretly building up a large army, far beyond the limits stipulated by the treaty.

The transfer of the remaining German warships to the Allies was set for March 10, when eight battleships, eleven cruisers and forty-two destroyers were to be formally surrendered. Seventy per cent. of the ships transferred were to go to Great Britain, 11 per cent. to Italy and 8 per cent. to Japan.

EXTRADITION OF WAR CRIMINALS

Another important concession to Germany related to the extradition of the 900 Germans accused by the allied nations of war crimes. The text of the German note of Jan. 25, proposing the trial of those accused by the German Federal Court at Leipzig, and referred to in the allied reply accepting this proposal on Feb. 16 (printed in the March issue of CURRENT HISTORY), was not made public in Berlin until Feb. 4. It read as follows:

The German Government pointed out to the Governments of the principal allied and associated powers in the beginning of last December the fatal consequences that would be entailed by a carrying out of the conditions contained in Articles 228 to 230 of the Peace Treaty regarding the extradition of Germans. The reasons for this statement were listed in a memorandum handed to the representatives of

and associated Governments' insistence upon extraditions would doubtless be bound to cause the most violent convulsions, not only in the political but also in the economic field. In particular would the thoroughgoing measures which the German Government is about to undertake for the purpose of preventing an economic collapse, especially in the matter of increasing production, that of coal above all, be put in extreme jeopardy, if not made entirely impossible. This would naturally produce serious reactions in the matter of fulfilling the economic obligations of the Peace Treaty.

In the memorandum of Nov. 5, 1919, there was also indicated a way to arrange the matter that would be endurable for Germany and at the same time be capable of being carried out. Since then the principal allied and associated powers have also become acquainted with another act by the German Government again indicating its earnest intention of bringing to justice and proper punishment Germans guilty of war crimes or outrages. This refers to the law, enacted unanimously by the German legislative bodies on Dec. 18, 1919, providing for the

}

prosecution of war criminals, a copy of which is inclosed herewith.

The Peace Treaty has gone into effect without the allied and associated powers having made manifest any intention on their part. to take into account the urgent representations of the German Government in this affair. In a clear conviction, only strengthened by the impression of the last few weeks, of the extraordinary seriousness of the situation, the German Government considers it its imperative duty once again to approach the allied and asosciated powers for the purpose of bringing about a settlement of the affair satisfactory to the interests of these powers, and possible of execution by Germany. Therefore, it repeats and defines once more the proposal already suggested, and accordingly makes the following declaration:

THE GERMAN PROPOSAL

The German Government will instruct the prosecuting authorities to begin at once criminal action against all Germans against whom the allied and associated Governments bring charges of having violated the rules and regulations of war, as soon as the evidence upon which these charges are based is received. It will suspend all laws which might stand in the way of the beginning of such an action, particularly the existing amnesty acts, in so far as these cases are concerned. The highest German court, the Federal Court in Leipsic, will be competent to handle this criminal procedure. Furthermore, the allied and associated powers actually interested will receive the right to take part directly in the trial.

A special agreement could be reached regarding the extent of this participation. For example, it would be quite possible to arrange matters SO that an allied power would send a representative of its interests to the trial, empowered to take note of all papers and documents concerning the case, to present new evidence, to name witnesses and experts, as well as to make proposals in general and to plead for the interests of the injured party. All proposals by this representative for bringing in evidence would be acceded to. Such witnesses and technical experts as were citizens of an allied or associated country would be heard, upon the demand of the allied representative, by the competent judicial authorities of their native lands, in which case the presence of the accused or of his attorney should be allowed. The decisions announced by the Federal Court would be published, together with their reasons. Furthermore, the German Government is ready to negotiate over the establishment of a second court.

The German Government is convinced that in this way, and only in this way, can the intentions of the allied and asso

probable that only such persons would voluntarily present themselves before the foreign courts as felt themselves innocent and consequently could count upon an acquittal. The really guilty ones, on the other hand, would escape punishment, because the Government, as is pointed out in more detail in the accompanying memorandum, could not find any officials who would be willing to carry out the arrests and extraditions.

The memorandum referred to in the German note enumerated the various reasons, already recounted in the press, why the German Government felt sure it could not survive a real attempt to arrest and hand over the war criminals.

EFFECT OF ALLIES' CONCESSIONS

The Entente's note transferring jurisdiction created much satisfaction in Germany, though the Government maintained an attitude of reserve, and the Reactionary Party sought to belittle what was in effect a triumph for the Ebert Government. Hints of further dif

ficulty were made by He Noske at Bremen on Feb. 18, on the score that much that appeared to the Allies to be criminal was purely a general war measure ordered by superiors, which Germany would never acknowledge to be a crime. Minister of Justice Schiffer, however, made the following statement:

The German Government considers it a matter of national honor that those persons named in the allied extradition list who have been guilty of war crimes shall be punished. Should any of the accused fail to answer the summons to appear before the High Court at Leipsig for trial on the charges preferred against him, he will be promptly arrested and taken there.

A number of prominent Generals and Admirals who were among those listed issued a declaration on Feb. 27 which, while reiterating their refusal to appear before a foreign tribunal, expressed their willingness to be tried before a German Judge. The signers of this declaration were General von Ludendorff, former First Quartermaster General; Admiral von Tirpitz, former Minister of the Navy; General von Falkenhayn, former Chief of Staff; Field Marshal von Kluck, Admiral von Schroeder, and numerous other high army and naval officers.

ALLIES FAVOR TEST TRIAL

At a meeting of the Interallied Justice Committee, empowered to deal with this matter, held in Paris on March 2, a selection of some forty-six culprits was made, against whom the evidence was most conclusive. This list was sifted and slightly modified at a subsequent meeting, and then submitted to the Supreme Council in London for approval and transmission to Germany. Appended to each name was a brief outline of the charges. The plan proposed was that Germany should try these selected culprits as a test of her sincerity. As the trials proceeded the allied committee was to compare the case put forward by the prosecution with its own very complete dossiers. To prepare each case the Germans would be given every facility for collecting evidence in the localities where the crimes occurred, either in France or elsewhere. The Al

lies retained the right to order a retrial or hold such retrial themselves if they considered the verdict unjust.

One German paper, Vorwärts, in its issue of Feb. 18, expressed great pessimism about the impartiality the Leipzig judges, saying of them:

They have been life-long and faithful supporters of the old Prussian military domination. Evil things have happened. Civilians have been massacred for alleged franc-tireur attacks, villages have been burned down, men and women have been deported, but who will say this is impossible after having observed the spirit and practices of German militarism, even in peace times?

GERMAN COUNTERCHARGES

A note handed to Premier Lloyd George by the German representative in London on March 10, on the other hand, after asserting that the Imperial Court would be guided only by considerations of justice, and would conduct an impartial inquiry, demanded that the arrest of Germans in the occupied territories on charges similar to those listed should cease, and that those arrested should be delivered to German courts. The note further demanded that the Allies should abandon the right claimed of arresting and trying Germans not on the list if caught on allied territory, saying that incidents arising out of the war should be consigned to oblivion with the advent of peace. Otherwise, it continued, the resumption of normal relations would be made difficult, and the German Government would be obliged to take official cognizance of crimes committed against Germans by allied subjects.

Regarding this last possibility, Foreign Minister Müller, during the debate on the Leipzig trials in the National Assembly on March 5, stated that Germany did not intend to send the Entente at present a list of allied citizens accused of misdeeds, and expressed doubt as to whether the Allies would punish any of their citizens on the strength of German evidence; such a move, he added, would probably unite even more firmly the allied coalition. A list, however, he stated, had been drawn up, comprising 312 pages of indictments against French individuals, and sixty