Prager Tagblatt
- Unwavering for Reconciliation!
- The Miners.
- Cheaper Potatoes and Cheap Fruit.
This Prague German-language daily led with a report from Cologne: Foreign Minister Gustav Stresemann, addressing his German People's Party congress to a long ovation, called Germany's new League of Nations membership both valuable in itself and a stage in its foreign-policy development, praised the personal contacts made in Geneva, said it was no accident that his talk with the French foreign minister took place near Geneva, and declared that Locarno and Geneva had laid the ground for settling problems with Germany's former enemies. From London came word that Ramsay MacDonald had called the acceptance of district agreements a surrender by the miners, even as Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire voted yes and nearly 200,000 men had gone back to work. A Prague item reported that, amid a continuing price battle with potato producers, the government had ordered strict monitoring of maximum market prices, arranged cheap potatoes for Prague and permitted cheap fruit imports to curb profiteering.
Translation
Unwavering for Reconciliation!
[?] Cologne, October 2. At the party congress of the German People's Party today, Foreign Minister Dr. Stresemann delivered a speech that was very important, particularly in its foreign-policy outlook. Dr. Stresemann, to whom the assembly gave a long ovation, stated: "For German foreign policy, membership in the League of Nations presents itself from two points of view: 1. that of the significance and value of the League of Nations as such; 2. that our entry into it is likewise a stage on the road of foreign-policy development."
"The Geneva session has strengthened me in the conviction I held about the League of Nations. Whatever one's attitude toward the general ideas of the League of Nations, it would be folly to fail to recognize the great political reality that the Geneva institution represents. The importance of Geneva went far beyond the opportunity to discuss acute individual questions. Personal relationships were established there such as were scarcely possible before. I personally value extraordinarily highly the contact I have already gained with many eminent statesmen at this first session. The policy of understanding has received strong support through our entry into the League of Nations. It is no accident that my discussion with the French foreign minister took place in the immediate vicinity of Geneva. In Locarno and Geneva the foundation has been laid for us that makes possible a settlement of the problems pending between Germany and its former wartime enemies. [?]
The Miners.
[?] London, Oct. 2. At a Labour Party rally for the miners yesterday, MacDonald spoke out against the "injustice of the latest government proposals" and said: "We are only at the beginning of the struggle. The struggle is not over when an agreement is reached. A government that has behaved as the Baldwin government has must have forfeited everyone's respect and confidence. If district agreements were to be accepted, that would mean a surrender on the part of the miners."
In the district-by-district vote, ordered by the miners' delegate conference, on the government proposal, which provides for an immediate resumption of work and provisional district agreements, the important districts of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire have voted "Yes." The strike is crumbling more and more. According to reports, the number of miners who have returned to work now amounts to nearly 200,000, or one fifth of the strikers. Yesterday alone, 10,000 miners resumed work. [?]
Cheaper Potatoes and Cheap Fruit.
Cheaper Potatoes and Cheap Fruit. Government Measures. Prague, October 2. As "České Slovo" reports, the price battle between the Ministry of Food and the potato producers continues. Nevertheless, far-reaching measures have been taken to supply the industrial centers, above all Prague, with cheap potatoes. Strict ordinances have been issued for monitoring maximum market prices. To curb profiteering in the fruit trade, the import of cheap varieties of fruit from abroad has been permitted. The effects of this order are already beginning to be felt on the market: fruit prices have stopped rising in recent days, and a significant drop in prices is expected, especially for plums and apples. [?]
Context
What Germany had just won in Geneva, and why Stresemann called it a 'stage'
Stresemann spoke only weeks after the event he was celebrating. In September 1926, as planned during the Locarno negotiations, Germany had been admitted to the League of Nations as a permanent member of its Council. His two-part formula at Cologne, valuing the League as such but also treating entry as 'a stage' in German foreign policy, fits what he wrote privately to the former Crown Prince: that the questions preoccupying the German people 'can be transformed into as many vexations for the Entente by a skilful orator before the League of Nations.' Reconciliation and treaty revision were therefore not opposites for him. The audience mattered too. Stresemann had founded the German People's Party himself, bringing together the right wing of the old National Liberals and some Progressives, and conservative opponents attacked him as a 'fulfilment politician.' The long ovation the paper reports was therefore also a show of support from his own party at home, not just applause for success abroad.
Who was the French foreign minister Stresemann met near Geneva?
The speech excerpt does not name him, but the French foreign minister at the time was Aristide Briand. He had returned to the Quai d'Orsay in 1925 and held the post into 1932. Stresemann's praise of 'personal relationships' formed in Geneva reflects a real partnership: among his close friendships with influential foreigners, the one with Briand is the best known. For their work on the Locarno Treaties, which aimed at reconciling France and Germany, the two men would share the Nobel Peace Prize for 1926. When Stresemann says it was 'no accident' that the meeting took place close to Geneva, he is making a political argument: that League membership had made such direct Franco-German talks a normal part of diplomacy. The excerpt gives his interpretation of the meeting, not a record of what was agreed there.
Why district agreements were the crux of the British coal dispute
The miners' dispute in the London dispatch had begun some five months earlier. After the Samuel Commission recommended wage cuts, the owners announced new terms, and about 1.2 million miners were locked out. The general strike of 4–12 May, called in their support, ended without a settlement. From the start, the Miners' Federation had rejected both the wage cut and regional negotiation. That is why MacDonald treated district agreements as 'surrender': bargaining as a national body was the miners' main defense. Labour's leaders had been uneasy about the general strike itself, so his fighting words at a rally were partly a show of solidarity at a moment of defeat. The yes votes the paper reports from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire point to the split that followed. Nottinghamshire's return to work against Federation policy divided the miners as a national bargaining force for years. By the end of November most miners were back at work, and those still employed had to accept longer hours, lower wages and district wage agreements. The paper's '200,000, or one fifth' implies about a million strikers, fewer than the 1.2 million locked out in May.
Which Czechoslovak government was fighting over potato prices?
The 'Ministry of Food' in the Prague item corresponds to Czechoslovakia's Ministry for Public Supply. At the time the country was governed by a caretaker cabinet of officials: Jan Černý's second government, formed after the second Švehla government fell when the Social Democrats and National Socialists left the coalition, held office from 18 March to 12 October 1926. Its justice minister, Jiří Haussmann, also held the supply portfolio. So the price monitoring and fruit-import permits in the article came from a stopgap administration, while its dispute with the potato producers was still unresolved. Ten days after this report, the caretaker cabinet was replaced by a new government. The item itself reports only expectations, cited from České Slovo, that plum and apple prices would fall.
Original
Unbeirrbar für die Versöhnung!
[?] Köln, 2. Oktober. Auf dem Parteitag der deutschen Volkspartei hielt heute Außenminister Dr. Stresemann eine namentlich in ihren außenpolitischen Ausblicken sehr wichtige Rede. Dr. Stresemann, dem die Versammlung eine langandauernde Ovation bereitete, führte aus: " Für die deutsche Außenpolitik stellt sich die Zugehörigkeit zum Völkerbund unter einem doppelten Gesichtspunkt dar: 1. Unter dem der Bedeutung und des Wertes des Völkerbundes als solchem, 2. Unter dem Gesichtspunkt, daß unser Eintritt in ihn ebenfalls eine Etappe auf dem Wege außenpolitischer Entwicklung ist. " Die Genfer Tagung hat mich bestärkt in der Ueberzeugung, die ich vom Völkerbund hatte. Gleichgültig, wie man sich zu den allgemeinen Ideen des Völkerbundes einstellen mag, wäre es Torheit, die große politische Realität zu verkennen, die die Genfer Institution darstellt. Die Bedeutung Genfs stieg über die Möglichkeit der Besprechung akuter Einzelfragen weit hinaus. Dort wurden persönliche Beziehungen begründet, wie sie vorher kaum möglich waren. Ich persönlich schätze den Kontakt, den ich mit vielen bedeutenden Staatsmännern schon bei dieser ersten Tagung gewonnen habe, außerordentlich hoch ein. Die Verständigungspolitik hat durch unseren Eintritt in den Völkerbund eine starke Stütze erhalten. Es ist kein Zufall, daß meine Besprechung mit dem französischen Außenminister in unmittelbarer Nähe von Genf stattfand. In Locarno und Genf ist für uns die Grundlage geschaffen worden, die eine Bereinigung der zwischen Deutschland und seinen Kriegsgegnern schwebenden Probleme ermöglicht. [?]
Die Bergarbeiter.
[?] London, 2. Okt. Mac Donald wandte sich gestern bei einer Kundgebung der Arbeiterpartei für die Bergarbeiter gegen die " Ungerechtigkeit der letzten Regierungsvorschläge " und sagte: " Wir stehen erst am Beginn des Kampfes. Der Kampf ist nicht beendet, wenn eine Vereinbarung erzielt wird. Eine Regierung, die sich benommen hat, wie die Regierung Baldwin, muß die Achtung und das Vertrauen jedermanns verwirkt haben. Wenn bezirksweise Vereinbarungen angenommen werden sollten, so bedeutet dies eine Uebergabe von seiten der Bergarbeiter. " In der von der Delegiertenkonferenz der Delegiertenkonferenz der Bergarbeiter angeordneten distriktsweisen Abstimmung über die Regierungsvorlage, die eine sofortige Wiederaufnahme der Arbeit und provisorische Bezirksabkommen vorsieht, haben die wichtigen Bezirke Derbyshire und Nottinghamshire mit " Ja " gestimmt. Der Streik bröckelt immer mehr ab. Wie verlautet, beträgt die Zahl der zur Arbeit zurückgekehrten Bergarbeiter nunmehr nahezu 200. 000 oder ein Fünftel der Streikenden. Gestern haben allein 10. 000 Bergarbeiter die Arbeit wieder aufgenommen. [?]
Billigere Kartoffeln und billiges Obst.
Billigere Kartoffeln und billiges Obst. Maßnahmen der Regierung. Prag, 2. Oktober. Wie das " České Slovo " meldet, dauert der Preiskampf zwischen dem Ernährungsministerium und den Kartoffelproduzenten weiter an. Dessen ungeachtet sind weitgreifende Maßnahmen zur Versorgung der Industriezentren, vor allem Prags, mit billigen Kartoffeln getroffen worden. Für die Ueberwachung der maximalen Marktpreise wurden strenge Verordnungen ausgegeben. Um dem Wucher im Obsthandel zu steuern, wurde die Einfuhr von billigen Obstsorten aus dem Auslande bewilligt. Die Folgen dieser Verfügung beginnen sich auch schon auf dem Markte auszuwirken, die Obstpreise steigen in den letzten Tagen nicht mehr und man erwartet eine bedeutende Preissenkung, besonders bei Zwetschken und Aepfel. [?]