25 JANUARY 1919, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE General Election in Germany last Sunday passed off peacefully. The Majority Socialists will be the strongest party in the National Assembly without having an absolute com- mand of the House. The Independent Socialists have been badly beaten, except in Berlin, Homburg, and Leipzig ; their electoral strength, like that of the I.LP. in Britain, is in inverse proportion to their clamour. The old parties which bare adopted new names—the Roman Catholic Centre is now the Christian People's Party, the Conservatives and Pan-Germans style themeelves the National People's Party, and the Pro- gressives are known as the Democratic Party—have polled more votes in the aggregate than the Socialists. Thus the party which made the Revolution will be in a raiuority in the first Revolutionary Parliament. It does not look as if the Germans were enthusiastic over the change of Government.