Germany responds to the irrational treatment she has received in
exactly the manner that might have been expected. Day by day she visibly falls to pieces and heaps up appalling problems for the future. We can mention only the most significant specimen incidents of the past week. On the evening of Thursday, November 8th, the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the German Republic, General Ludendorff and Herr Hitler suddenly assumed power at Munich. They formed a Directory of five persons and claimed authority not only over Bavaria but over the whole of Germany. The Bavarian Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior were arrested. The Directory appointed General von Lossow Reichswehr Minister for all Germany. It, hop-ever, had but a short time to live. It soon appeared that Herr von Kahr and General von Lossow had agreed under duress to the coup and were not really in sympathy with it. Directly they had time to collect their thoughts they began to work against it, with the result that General Ludendorff and Herr Hitler were arrested and the Putsch collapsed. General Ludendorff was afterwards set free on giving his parole—a parole which has since been variously interpreted—not to take part in further political movements.
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