28 JANUARY 1928, Page 2

At least they had a clean slate immediately 'after the

War. The Weimar Constitution contemplated a Unitary State ; inside that constitution there is not the material of a Federation in the ordinary sense. Circumstances, however, haVe already been thwarting the thec ry. Small and poor States, it is true, have found it so difficult to support substantial independence that they have been glad enough to put themselves in the keeping and under the control of the Reich. But the case of Bavaria is quite different. Her strength and her jealousy of Prussia impel her to maintain very much the position which she took up when Bismarck was creating the German Empire. A Unitary State will never satisfy her so long as her present mood lasts. She has no inten- tion of being merely a " land " or a " province." There is obviously something much more than mere sentiment in her attachment to the monarchical principle. The recall of hereditary rulers would tilt the balance, as she knows, on to the. Federal side-.

* * * *