The Zabern crisis has come to an end, as we
expected, leaving everything much as it was before. The military despotism is maintained, and the majority of the Reichstag have failed, in characteristic manner, to press home the vote of censure which they carried early in December. On Friday week Herr von Bethmann Hollweg answered inter- pellations in the Reichstag, and the Centre and the National Liberals left the Socialists to utter their indignation alone. Herr von Bethmann Hollweg made a speech on the familiar lines, arguing that Germany owed everything to her Army and must preserve the authority and honour of that Army. Cases must occasionally arise when it was necessary for the Army to supersede the civil law, but as a matter of fact it had never been necessary to invoke the Cabinet Order of 1820 until the other day at Zabern—a delightfully ingenious way of distorting the fact that an obsolete Order belonging to the days of Prussian patriarchal rule before the German Empire existed has enjoyed a grotesque revival. Dr. Frank described the actions of the Crown Prince as "insupportable interference," and added (according to Renter): " We are glad of it, because it stirs up the people and makes them see that if the future Emperor interferes in public affairs in such a manner, they most take their destinies into their own hands."
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