Confiscation Question

The Reichstag definitely rejected last week by a vote of 242 to 236 a bill, sponsored by Socialists and Communists, which provided that property originally belonging to the former German nobility and seized from them by the Republic should be retained without compensation.

The purpose of the bill, which admittedly never stood the slightest chance of passing, was merely to record publicly the Reichstag's opposition to all such proposals, thereby clearing the way for a national referendum on this highly important question.

Thoroughgoing Germans have already cast over ten million ballots in a preliminary "referendum referendum" (TIME, March 29), as a result of which the issue itself must be submitted to referendum within four weeks.

In order to deprive the Hohenzollerns and other German nobles of their property, 20 million ballots must be cast. Such a victory for the Left parties would result at least in the inevitable inclusion of several Socialists and Communists in the Cabinet, if it were not actually turned over to them. Per contra, if the twenty million votes are not forthcoming, the Right parties may expect a somewhat similar aggrandizement.

The Reichstag proceedings upon this point last week were, however, of such a routine nature that only Deputy Scheidemann (Socialist) spoke. He accused Wilhelm of Doorn of high treason, charging that he betrayed secrets of importance to the late Tsar Nicholas. During Herr Scheidemann's tirade, many Deputies of the Right quietly left the hall--heeded not when he went on to accuse Wilhelm's sympathizers of "deception, corruption, and doglike servility."