13 DECEMBER 1913, Page 2

But as regards the rest of Germany we cannot see

that any- thing noteworthy has been accomplished. Last Saturday official statements were issued to the effect that the Imperial Chancellor when he spoke in the Reichstag had been (as the Times translates the expression) " out of form." He had not insisted on the fact that the Emperor had consulted civil authorities as well as military authorities on the whole matter. The Prussian Minister of War similarly had not laid all the facts before the Reichstag. The Chancellor thus finds him- self in a humiliating position —he is censured by the

Reichstag, and has the speech which provoked the censure explained away by his Imperial master. The question whether he would resign was answered clearly in the Reichstag on Tuesday. A Socialist deputy declared that the Chancellor ought to be subservient to the votes of the Reichstag. This was enough to break up the unity of the groups which had carried the vote of censure. The National Liberals and the Centre both dissociated themselves from democratic notions of how a Constitution ought to work. "With all my strength," said the Chancellor, thus encouraged, " I shall oppose all attempts to diminish the Constitutional rights of the Emperor." In other words, the Emperor remains supreme at the cost of his Chancellor's reputation.