The true .nature of the Government reigning at Berlin is
still uncertain. A German wireless message of Friday week announced that the "Council of National Plenipotentiarlea," presumably the six Socialists, had appointed -State Secretaries of the old official type, headed by Dr. Soli, with Socialist "assistants," and that State Secretary Erzberger, who has no special offloe, and Dr. Solf would conduct the peace negotiations. The new Government, therefore, looks very much like the old one. The Departmental chiefs are. the real possessors of power. Moreover, Marshal von Hindenburg still commands the Army. Dr. Soil continues to bombard the Allies and America with wireless protests against the alleged inhumanity of the armistice conditions, while his fellow. officials turn our prisoners adrift in Germany without food, clothes, or money. Dr. Soil went so far on Monday as to demand that our occupation of the left bank of the Rhine should not be allowed to interfere in any way with the normal economic conditions or with the collection of Customs on the old frontier. Dr. Soli does not realize that his impudent protests turn the hearts of the Allied peoples against Germany. The Germans will receive at our hands the just treatment which they denied to the inhabitants of Northern France and Belgium, but they must pay the price of defeat.
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