28 DECEMBER 1918, Page 2

The Conference of German Workmen's and Soldiers' Councils, sitting at

Berlin, resolved on Wednesday week to transfer its legislative and executive powers to the Government under Herr Ebert. This Government consists of tho six "People's Com- missaries n appointed in November, three of them being Majority Socialists and three Independent or Minority Socialists, with Herr Ebert and Herr Haase as the respective chiefs. The Government's position should be strengthened by the decision of the Conference, which, speaking for all German Socialists, repudiated the claim of the Berlin Soviet to exercise the supreme authority, as the Petro- grad Soviet contrived to do in Russia last year with most disastrous results. The Conference appointed a Council to act as a temporary Parliament supervisieg the actions of the Govern- ment, until the National Assembly should meet. All the members of this Council are Majority Socialists. Herr Ebert seems to have the Army behind him, in so far that the troops prefer the Majority Socialists to the Bolsheviks. But it would be rash to assume -that the Socialist revolution has achieved a permanent success.