MASTER IN HIS HOUSE
SIR,—Yesterday I happened to run across the article in the Spectator of November 6 in which Sarah Gain- ham mentioned the • brave resignation of the A usiviirtiges Aont's expert for East European Affairs and added that this was the first such act of a high Federal Government official.
Was not, though, the resignation of Dr. Heine- mann from the post of Bundesminister des Inner': in September, 1950, and his consequent withdrawal from the CDU an even braver step? As you will remember, Dr. Heinemann was then opposed to the Federal Chancellor's promise 'of West German rearmament which the latter had given to the Western Allies without having asked the Bundestag. Dr. Heinemann thought that Adenauer's insistence would bar the way to reunification of Germany. Thus he left his. sinecure; and this in 1950 when Adenauer's in- tentions to rule with a strong hand, had by far not been so obvious.
believe that Dr. Heinemann has set a unique standard as far as his political consequence is con- cerned.—Yours faithfully, 'HANSOEORO SCHRADER
[Sarah Gainham writes: 'This is quite true. I had forgotten the case of Dr. Heinemann, who, as Herr Schrader says, resigned most courageously before it had become clear that the next ten years or so were to be the "Adenauer era." The reference to a sinecure ine,.ns the cosy German law which gives a Minister
life-pension after serving four years, one of the feasot;s for the tenacity with which office is held here.' —Etiitor, Spectator.]
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