Journal de Genève
- National Pacification in Czechoslovakia
- The Fundamental Confusion
- The Philippines and Rubber
The front page of 14 October 1926 carried a column signed "W. M." on Czechoslovakia. It called the Germans' rallying to the state a great success for Edvard Beneš, even though his own National Socialist party was in opposition and he sat in the cabinet only as a specialist, "somewhat up in the air". In a signed column, Colonel Feyler argued that the Swiss army was weak at the top because administration and command were confused, and he blamed that defect for the "affairs" that kept harming the army. A correspondent in the United States reported that President Coolidge's envoy, Colonel Thompson, had spent two months touring the Philippines. He wrote that Thompson's views were already leaking out ahead of a report due in November.
Translation
National Pacification in Czechoslovakia
M. Beneš, who has always been anxious to stand above the parties, was nevertheless obliged, through the workings of proportional representation, to choose a party in order to be elected a deputy. He chose the National Socialist Party, with which he had moral affinities, even though it counts some of his fiercest personal adversaries among its members. That party being in opposition today, M. Beneš belongs to the cabinet as a specialist and finds himself somewhat up in the air in politics. The rallying of the Germans to the State is nonetheless a great success for him. In communion of ideas with President Masaryk and with his friend M. Švehla, leader of the Agrarian Party and Prime Minister, he has never ceased to pursue a policy of moderation toward…
The Fundamental Confusion
It is not enough to assert; one must demonstrate. I believed I could assert that our army was weak at the top, not because of the men, but because of a defective organization that reduces what it could achieve. The fundamental defect lies in an unfortunate confusion between administration and command. From this confusion spring the "affairs" that periodically arise to the detriment of the army and its work. That…
The Philippines and Rubber
(From our correspondent in the United States) For several months now the Philippines have been insistently holding public attention. Various problems are creating a difficult situation there, for their solution can only be contradictory. And [?] wishing to form an opinion and to proceed fairly, President Coolidge sent to the distant archipelago a special representative, Colonel Charmi Thompson, who has just spent two months studying the islands and travelling through them in every direction. Although he will not submit his report to the President until November, he has nevertheless let his opinion filter out, and one can already form an idea of what the coming settlement of the Philippines will be.
Context
How German parties entered the Czechoslovak cabinet in October 1926
Švehla's third cabinet was formed on 12 October 1926, and it made German politicians ministers for the first time since Czechoslovakia was founded. According to the Neue Deutsche Biographie entry on Robert Mayr-Harting, the national coalition of Czech and Slovak parties had first broken apart over agricultural tariffs and the salaries of priests. Mayr-Harting then joined the government as minister of justice and Franz Spina of the Bund der Landwirte as minister of public works. The same entry says that Mayr-Harting, a Prague law professor, had argued as early as December 1918 for German participation in the new state. The Library of Congress country study likewise dates German parties' participation in government from 1926. The column was printed two days after the cabinet was formed, so the "rallying of the Germans to the State" that W. M. credits to Beneš most likely refers to this entry of German ministers.
Why Beneš sat in the cabinet as a specialist
According to the column, Beneš had to join a party to stand for parliament under proportional representation. It says that the party he chose, the National Socialists, was now in opposition, so he served in the cabinet as a specialist. The Library of Congress country study confirms the party tie: the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, led by Václav Klofáč, drew its members chiefly from the lower middle class, civil servants and the intelligentsia, and it names Beneš among them. The same study says a coalition of five Czechoslovak parties formed the backbone of government through most of the interwar years, except from March 1926 to November 1929, when that coalition did not hold. The column's picture of a foreign-policy figure detached from his own party matches this break: the new Švehla government rested on a different combination of parties that now included German ministers, while Beneš's party stood outside it.
The army "affairs" behind Colonel Feyler's argument
In 1923 a senior Swiss officer left the army in protest over plans to restructure it. Emil Sonderegger, who had been promoted to the General Staff in 1920, resigned that year over the reorganisation plans. The civilian head of the Military Department at the time was Karl Scheurer, who held that department throughout his years on the Federal Council and was President of the Confederation in 1923. Feyler's claim that the confusion between administration and command produces periodic "affairs" damaging to the army fits such a clash between the political head of the department and a top officer over how the army should be organised. The selected excerpt names no particular case, but further down the same column Feyler himself cites the "Scheurer–Sonderegger dispute" of 1923 and the way Sonderegger left the army "slamming the door".
Carmi Thompson's 1926 survey of the Philippines
The dispatch's "Colonel Charmi Thompson" is Carmi Thompson, the envoy President Coolidge sent to survey the Philippines in 1926. Reporting on his departure in October 1926, the American Chamber of Commerce Journal in Manila recorded that he had arrived in Manila on 9 July. The Journal also said he gave three months to the job, a longer stay than the two months the Geneva correspondent mentions. The Journal described the pressures Thompson met. Filipino leaders demanded immediate, absolute and complete independence from the United States and opposed the Bacon bill, which would have given Mindanao a separate administration. That clash between the independence campaign and proposals to divide or tighten American rule is the kind of conflict the correspondent means when he writes that any solution can only be contradictory.
Original
La pacification nationale en Tchécoslovaquie
M. Bénès, qui a toujours tenu à se placer au-dessus des partis, a cependant été obligé, par le jeu de la représentation proportionnelle, de choisir un parti pour se faire élire député. Il a choisi le parti socialiste-national, avec lequel il avait des affinités morales, bien qu'il y compte quelques-uns de ses plus farouches adversaires personnels. Ce parti étant aujourd'hui dans l'opposition. M. Bénès appartient au cabinet en tant que spécialiste, et se trouve un peu en l'air dans la politique. Le ralliement des Allemands à l'Etat n'en est pas moins un grand succès pour lui. Il n'a cessé de faire, en communion d'idées avec le président Masaryk et avec son ami, M. Svehla, chef du parti agraire et président du conseil, une politique de modération vis-à-vis
La confusion fondamentale
La confusion fondamentale Il ne suffit pas d'affirmer, il faut démontrer. J'ai cru pouvoir affirmer que notre armée était faible par en haut, non du fait des hommes, mais de celui d'une organisation défectueuse qui diminue son rendement possible. Le défaut fondamental réside dans une fâcheuse confusion entre l'administration et le commandement. De cette confusion procèdent les «affaires», qui, périodiquement, surgissent au détriment de l'armée et de son travail. Que
Les Philippines et le caoutchouc
(De notre correspondant des Etats-Unis) Voici plusieurs mois que les Philippines retiennent avec insistance l'attention publique. Divers problèmes y crèent une situation difficile, car leur solution ne saurait être que contradictoire. Et [?] désirant se faire une opinion et procéder avec équité, le président Coolidge a envoyé dans le lointain archipel un représentant spécial, le colonel Charmi Thompson, qui vient de passer deux mois à étudier les îles et à les parcourir en tous sens. S'il ne soumettra son rapport au président qu'en novembre, il a laissé cependant filtrer son opinion, et l'on peut dès aujourd'hui se faire une idée de ce que sera le prochain règlement des Philippines.