The German crisis caused by the relations between soldiers and
civilians in Alsace has come to an end very much in the manner we expected. The offending regiment has been removed from Zabern, but the Chancellor has formally main- tained his position, and no doubt the methods and manners of the Army and the working of the Constitution will be found at the next crisis to be just the same as ever. The removal of the regiment—the 90th Infantry—from Zabern was an event of much interest. The troops marched to the railway station with their band playing. The colonel of the regiment, how- ever, who recently ordered the indiscriminate arrest of civilians, did not appear till the regiment had arrived at the platform. The young lieutenant who has been the central figure of the trouble did not appear at all. One report says that he was on the sick list; another that he has resigned his commission. The military party was at first chuckling over the discomfiture of the townspeople of Zabern, as it was said that no garrison would be maintained there in future; and the trade of the town, as the Times correspondent points out, depends chiefly on the presence of troops. But, after all, it has turned out that a new regiment will be stationed there. Its relations with the town are likely to be free from deliberate arrogance. To that extent the civil protest has triumphed.
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