A very important point—perhaps the most important—to emphasize in connection with the German elections is the growing sanity of polities in that country. That is a good deal to say about any country in Europe in these days, but, coming after squabbles among the lesser nations, any one of which might have proved dan-serous to the peace of the world, it is all the more gratifying. What we find is a continued trend to the Left, and it is necessary to explain in the first place what this means. The Right parties in Germany may be taken roughly as monarchically inclined. In the Centre are the Catholics, and considering that in religion Germany is about one-third Catholic, we can well appreciate the possible effects of a sway in either direction by this body. In the election just concluded, however, this party has not come into any particular prominence, and it is, the position of the parties on the Left that matters. In this direction, next to the Centre, stands the German People's Party, of which the Foreign Minister, Dr. Stresemann, is a member, "and then leaving out other details we come to the Socialist Party and the Communists. In this cleetion we have seen a gain by the Socialists, and, while in other countries that very title for a party is sufficient to cause mis-iving, it is not so in Germany. The Socialist Party of Germany be described as in a position, more or less, between the Liberal and Labour Parties of Britain, and there is this important fact, that eschews Communism. Thus while on the Left it is placed actually next to the Communists, a very wide gap exists between the creeds of the two. We shall probably not be very far wrong if we say that the Liberal elements of the electorate have secured a majority.
Now as to the position of Dr. Stresemann, who has been the central figure in the election. He has been Germany's Foreign Minister for the past few years, and has the Locarno Agreement, an immense reputation for honest, and other things to his credit, and it was practically is policy that was being fought over in this election. We sce that the majority of his countrymen agree with him, yet during these past days there have been telegrams showing that in contesting a seat in southern Bavaria he has been unsuccessful, and that he only goes to the Reichstag by virtue of what may be described as a system of proportional voting. The latest German papers to hand do not help us to explain this state of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.