Prager Tagblatt
- League of Nations Epilogue
- For Trust and Reconciliation
- The Death Penalty in Italy
The Prager Tagblatt of 3 October 1926 looked back on the League of Nations assembly that had just closed in Geneva. Its editorial judged Austen Chamberlain an honest but unremarkable British foreign secretary, too trusting of Briand and the Polish delegate, and observed that Edvard Beneš had chaired the Disarmament Commission even though, in the paper's view, Czechoslovakia spent more on arms per head than almost any European state. It argued that the League's new course would free small states from reliance on French protection. A report of a German speech traced the 'policy of understanding' from the Dawes arrangements and the February memorandum through Locarno and Geneva to Thoiry, with Rhineland sovereignty as its goal. A Rome dispatch reported that the Italian cabinet had approved a bill imposing death for attacks on the royal family and the head of government.
Translation
League of Nations Epilogue
[?] A certain naivety, an unmistakable good faith toward the wily Briand and the sly Pole, are traits of character that in the end earn him more sympathy than he can lose through occasional imprudences. His sharp critics in England and on the Continent are probably right that a position such as that of the English Foreign Secretary, to whom from time to time falls the role of arbiter over one half of the globe, requires a personality of quite rare gifts and iron character. Chamberlain is not such an individual, but since the English Conservative Party has no one better to offer, one simply has to make do with him and be glad that his character does, after all, probably stand above the good English average. Since he left Geneva, the English delegation, although the by no means insignificant Viscount Cecil has remained here, has lost a great deal of its weight.
Little Czechoslovakia holds a remarkable exceptional position at the League of Nations. Dr. Beneš served to the very end as president of the Disarmament Commission, and Minister Veverka as chairman of Subcommission B of the Disarmament Commission. This is entirely a recognition of Dr. Beneš's personality, for with the best will in the world one cannot claim that the Czechoslovak Republic has particularly distinguished itself in disarmament. On the contrary, there are few states in Europe that have spent as much on armaments per head of population as Czechoslovakia. It is said that in the coming years we too will get serious about reducing the excessive peacetime strengths. The two agrarian parties, which are to form the core of the government majority, are very energetically in favor of reducing both the cadres and the term of service.
From the standpoint of the small and medium-sized states, the present direction of the League of Nations is a great stroke of fortune. Many a Czech power politician may be sorely grieved that a time threatens to dawn in which the French will have no use for military allies. For Czechoslovakia as a whole state, it is a lasting gain if it no longer remains dependent on the protection of a single power, but is secured in its possessions by obligations voluntarily assumed by its former adversaries.
For Trust and Reconciliation
[?] who direct their gaze only to the past and who cannot or will not learn anything from history. The policy of understanding led, by way of the MICUM agreements and the experts' report, to the London Conference and the Dawes Report, that agreement so much fought against, so oppressive, and yet standing out so strongly from the reparations policy formerly favored toward us, in that it places the preservation of the German economy and the German currency at the center of its system. This policy led, by way of the London Conference, to the much-contested February memorandum, which I still proudly stand by today, and led from this memorandum and its initiative to Locarno, from Locarno to Geneva and from Geneva to Thoiry. On the path of this policy lies the evacuation of the Ruhr, lies the evacuation of the first Rhineland zone. On its final stretch lies the hard-fought winning of German sovereignty over the German Rhineland. Within the framework of this policy lies Germany's entry into the League of Nations. For German foreign policy, this membership in the League of Nations presents itself from a twofold point of view -
The Death Penalty in Italy
[?] setting aside all party spirit, to stand by today's Germany.
The Death Penalty in Italy.
For attacks on the royal family and the prime minister.
Rome, October 2. Today's Council of Ministers, on the proposal of the Minister of Justice, approved the bill that punishes with death attempts against the person of the King, the Queen, the Regent, the Crown Prince and the Head of Government. Jurisdiction to judge such crimes is transferred to a special section of the Supreme Court, which will function as the Supreme Court. This bill will be submitted to Parliament when its work resumes.
Rintelen's Return to Graz.
Graz, October 2. The club of the Christian -
Context
From Dawes to the Rhineland: the chain of agreements in the speech
The speaker in "Für Vertrauen und Versöhnung" claims personal authorship of the "February memorandum" and presents one continuous road from reparations to sovereignty. That points to Gustav Stresemann, who in January and February 1925 sent secret memoranda to Britain and France proposing a Rhine security pact, the initiative that grew into Locarno. The earlier steps the speaker lists are well documented: the Dawes Plan of 1924 reduced Germany's overall reparations commitment, reorganised the Reichsbank and ended the Ruhr occupation, which fits the speech's claim that the scheme put the German economy and currency at its centre. After Locarno, the long-delayed withdrawal of British troops from the Cologne region, the "first Rhineland zone" of the speech, took place in January 1926, and Germany entered the League with a permanent Council seat on 10 September 1926. The "final stretch" toward sovereignty over the Rhineland matches Stresemann's own view, as Hans Mommsen summarises it, that Locarno was only a first step toward the "gradual reacquisition of German sovereignty". That goal was reached in 1930, when the last occupying troops left the Rhineland, five years earlier than the Treaty of Versailles required. The speech places Thoiry after Geneva as the newest stage.
Chamberlain: naive arbiter or strategist of eastern revision?
The Prague editorial describes Austen Chamberlain as an honest but limited foreign secretary: naive toward "the wily Briand and the sly Pole," and tolerable only because the Conservatives had no one better. Historians' accounts of his Locarno diplomacy suggest a more deliberate design. Chamberlain hoped that better Franco-German relations would lead France to give up gradually its cordon sanitaire of eastern alliances. In one interpretation, he also believed that lasting peace would become more likely once territories claimed by Germany, such as the Sudetenland, had been handed over. Seen from Berlin, he looked no more naive. Stresemann later wrote that Chamberlain "had never been our friend" and that his first move had been to try to restore the old Entente through a three-power alliance. The editorial's hope that France would soon have "no use for military allies" therefore describes the result Chamberlain's strategy aimed at, but the Prague writer treats it as a gain for Czechoslovakia rather than a risk.
What Locarno actually promised Czechoslovakia
The editorial expects Czechoslovakia's possessions to be secured "by obligations voluntarily assumed by its former adversaries." Beneš had signed the Locarno agreements himself as Czechoslovakia's foreign minister, and the package did include a Germany–Czechoslovakia arbitration treaty. But the arbitration treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia were not binding, and although Germany agreed to settle disputes peacefully, there was notably no guarantee of its eastern border, unlike the Rhine pact in the west. Alongside these sat separate treaties between France and Czechoslovakia promising mutual assistance under Article 16 of the League Covenant. That was exactly the single-power protection the editorial hoped the country could outgrow. The editorial's claims about Czechoslovak per-capita arms spending and the agrarian parties' push to cut cadres and length of service are the paper's own statements about domestic politics in autumn 1926.
From the 2 October bill to the law of 25 November 1926
The Rome dispatch came three weeks after the most recent attempt on Mussolini's life: on 11 September 1926 the anarchist Gino Lucetti had thrown a bomb at the Duce's car. The bill marked a sharp break: capital punishment had been abolished nationwide by the 1889 Penal Code, so that even Gaetano Bresci could not be sentenced to death after assassinating King Umberto I in 1900. After a further attempt on Mussolini at Bologna on 31 October 1926, capital punishment for such attacks was enacted in Law no. 2008 of 25 November 1926, one of the so-called leggi fascistissime. In 1926 the regime thus reintroduced the death penalty for attacks on the king, the queen, the heir apparent or the prime minister. The enacted version differed from the dispatch on jurisdiction. Instead of a special section of the Supreme Court, the same law created a Special Tribunal for the Defence of the State, staffed by officers of the armed forces. It first sat on 1 February 1927 and by 1943 had handed down 42 death sentences, 31 of them carried out.
Original
Völkerbund-Epilog.
[?] Eine gewisse Naivität, eine unverkennbare Gutgläubigkeit gegenüber dem gerissenen Briand und dem schlauen Polen sind Charaktereigenschaften, die ihm an Sympathien schließlich mehr einbringen, als er durch gelegentliche Unvorsichtigkeiten verlieren kann. Seine scharfen Kritiker in England und auf dem Kontinent haben wahrscheinlich darin recht, daß für eine Stellung wie die des englischen Außenministers, dem von Zeit zu Zeit die Rolle des Schiedsrichters der einen Hälfte des Erdballs zufällt, eine Persönlichkeit von ganz seltenen Gaben und von eisernem Charakter notwendig ist. Eine solche Individualität ist Chamberlain nicht, aber da die englische konservative Partei keinen Besseren aufzuweisen hat, so muß man eben mit ihm vorlieb nehmen und sich darüber freuen, daß sein Charakter doch wohl noch über dem guten englischen Durchschnitt steht. Seit er von Genf abgereist ist, hat die englische Delegation, obzwar der keineswegs unbedeutende Viscount Cecil hiergeblieben ist, doch sehr an Bedeutung eingebüßt. Eine merkwürdige Ausnahmestellung nimmt auf dem Völkerbund die kleine Tschechoslowakei ein. Dr. Beneš funktionierte bis zum Schluß als Präsident der Abrüstungskommission, der Gesandte Veverka als Vorsitzender der Unterkommission B der Abrüstungskommission. Es ist das durchaus eine Anerkennung der Persönlichkeit des Dr. Beneš, denn man kann beim besten Willen nicht behaupten, daß die tschechoslowakische Republik sich bei der Abrüstung besonders hervorgetan hat. Im Gegenteil, es gibt wenige Staaten in Europa, die auf den Kopf der Bevölkerung so viel für Rüstungen aufgewendet haben wie die Tschechoslowakei. Wie man hört, wird in den nächsten Jahren auch bei uns mit der Reduktion der übergroßen Friedensstände Ernst gemacht werden. Die beiden agrarischen Parteien, die den Kern der Regierungsmehrheit bilden sollen, sind sehr energisch für eine Reduktion sowohl der Kaders als auch der Dienstzeit. Vom Standpunkte der Kleinstaaten und Mittelstaaten ist die gegenwärtige Richtung des Völkerbundes ein großes Glück. Manchem tschechischen Machtpolitiker mag es großen Kummer bereiten, daß eine Zeit anzubrechen droht, in der die Franzosen für militärische Alliierte keine Verwendung haben werden. Für die Tschechoslowakei als Gesamtstaat ist es ein dauernder Gewinn, wenn sie nicht mehr auf die Protektion einer einzigen Macht angewiesen bleibt, sondern in ihrem Besitztum durch freiwillig übernommene Verpflichtungen ihrer früheren Gegner gesichert ist.
Für Vertrauen und Versöhnung
[?] die den Blick nur in die Vergangenheit lenken und die aus der Geschichte nichts lernen können oder wollen. Die Verständigungspolitik führte über die Micumverträge und das Sachverständigengutachten zur Londoner Konferenz und dem Dawes-Gutachten, jenem Abkommen, so viel bekämpft, so drückend, aber doch so stark sich abhebend von der früher uns gegenüber beliebten Reparationspolitik, daß es die Erhaltung der deutschen Wirtschaft und der deutschen Währung in den Mittelpunkt seines Systems stellt. Diese Politik führte über die Londoner Konferenz zu dem viel bekämpften FebruarMemorandum, zu dem ich mich auch heute mit Stolz bekenne und führte von diesem Memorandum und seiner Initiative nach Locarno, von Locarno nach Genf und von Genf nach Thoiry. Auf dem Wege dieser Politik liegt die Räumung des Ruhrgebietes, liegt die Räumung der ersten Rheinlandzone. Auf ihrem Schlußweg liegt die Erkämpfung der deutschen Souveränität über das deutsche Rheinland. Im Rahmen dieser Politik liegt Deutschlands Eintritt in den Völkerbund. Für die deutsche Außenpolitik stellt sich diese Zugehörigkeit zum Völkerbund unter einem doppelten Gesichts -
Die Todesstrafe in Italien.
[?] drängung jeglichen Parteigeistes zum heutigen Deutschland zu stehen. Die Todesstrafe in Italien. Bei Anschlägen auf die Königsfamilie und den Ministerpräsidenten. Rom, 2. Oktober. Der heutige Ministerrat hat auf Vorschlag des Justizministers den Gesetzentwurf gebilligt, der mit Todesstrafe die Attentate gegen die Person des Königs, der Königin, des Regenten, des Kronprinzen und des Regierungschefs ahndet. Die Kompetenz, über solche Verbrechen zu urteilen, wird einer besonderen Abteilung des Obersten Gerichtshofes, die als Oberster Gerichtshof fungieren wird, übertragen. Dieser Gesetzentwurf wird dem Parlament bei der Wiederaufnahme der Arbeiten. vorgelegt werden. Rintelens Rückkehr nach Graz. Graz, 2. Oktober. Der Klub der christlich -