Prager Tagblatt
- The Imperial Conference.
- The Steirerbank Morass.
- Resignation of the Ramek Cabinet.
The Prague German-language daily's front page of 16 October 1926 carried a column under David Lloyd George's byline headed 'The Imperial Conference'. The only line recorded under it, which on the page is the caption to a portrait of Asquith, says that Asquith is stepping down as leader of England's Liberal Party. The other items dealt with Austrian politics. A report on the 'Steirerbank morass' linked the bank's affairs to leading politicians and senior officials. Under the headline announcing the Ramek cabinet's resignation, a Vienna dispatch dated 15 October reported the Council of Ministers acting after the Central Postal Committee, the Committee of 25 and the Technical Union called the government's latest concessions insufficient. Fragments in the same column say that write-offs for prominent provincial officials were made only after 29 October 1925, and they mention Seipel next to a broken-off word for 'probable'.
Translation
The Imperial Conference.
By David Lloyd George.
Asquith steps down from the leadership of England's Liberal Party.
The Steirerbank Morass.
Tagb glands Saturday, 16 Octo … The Steirerba … n the leading politicians and senior officials
Resignation of the Ramek Cabinet.
… entral … would … the … solely … Central … provided … be; … therefore 4. will … Hamer a series of write-offs for prominent provincial officials had been made only after 29 October 1925 … upon the resignation of the Cab… After a new St… Seipel the probabl…
Vienna, 15 October. The Council of Ministers has, in view of the fact that the Central Postal Committee as well as the Committee of 25 and the Technical Union have described the government's latest concessions as insufficient, … a … with … In … the
Context
What the 1926 Imperial Conference decided about Dominion status
Lloyd George's column appeared three days before the Imperial Conference opened: the prime ministers of the Dominions met in London from 19 October to 23 November 1926. Their standing had been unsettled since the war. At Paris in 1919 the Dominions signed the Treaty of Versailles as part of the British Empire delegation but were admitted to the League of Nations as separate members, and this confusion prompted calls for a formal statement of their relationship with the United Kingdom. The conference answered on 15 November by unanimously adopting the Balfour Declaration, which described Britain and the Dominions as autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status and in no way subordinate to one another in domestic or external affairs. The only line recorded under Lloyd George's heading in this reading is the news of Asquith giving up the Liberal leadership, which on the page is the caption to a portrait of Asquith, so his own case on Dominion status is not part of this reading. The declaration came a month later as the outcome of the conference he was writing about.
How the troubled Steirerbank was passed to the Centralbank
The paper calls the Steirerbank affair a 'morass' and ties it to leading politicians and senior officials; in the Ramek column it adds that write-offs for prominent provincial officials were made only after 29 October 1925. Jakob Ahrer was finance minister in Ramek's first cabinet from 20 November 1924 to 15 January 1926, so the date the paper gives falls within his term. At the finance minister's urging, struggling institutions close to the Christian Socials, among them the Lower Austrian Bauernbank and the Steirerbank, were loaded onto the Centralbank der deutschen Sparkassen, which Viktor Wutte controlled. Five months after Ahrer left office the Centralbank was ripe for bankruptcy, and the Ramek government had to rescue it in early July 1926. The write-offs for individual officials are the paper's own report; the sources cited here document the transfer of the Steirerbank and the rescue of the Centralbank.
The fall of the Ramek cabinet and Seipel's return
The Vienna dispatch of 15 October presents the cabinet's decision as a response to the public employees' organisations: the Central Postal Committee, the Committee of 25 and the Technical Union had all called the government's latest concessions insufficient. Historical accounts put more weight on the banking side of the crisis. The Postsparkasse scandal became public in September 1926, when the speculative dealings of the state postal savings bank came to light, and Ramek resigned during that crisis on 20 October 1926, again succeeded by Ignaz Seipel. The same column on this page places the staff dispute next to the Steirerbank write-offs, and the fragmentary lines already mention Seipel beside the word 'probable'. Seipel then served again as chancellor from 1926 to 1929, fighting above all against the Social Democrats and bringing his Christian Social Party together with the Greater German People's Party.
Original
Die Reichskonferenz.
Asquith tritt von der Führung der liberalen Partei Englands zurück.
Der Steirerbank-Sumpf.
Tagb glands Samstag, 16. Okto Der Steirerba n die Führenden Politikern und hohen Beamte
Rücktritt des Kabinetts Ramek.
entralt. Sollwürde rreichioll die s ledigZentralmeinen on der gestellnanziewerden; te dem o daher 4. wird ite sonenerals Hamer eine Reihe von Abschreibungen für prominente Landesbeamte erst nach dem 29. Oktober 1925 vorgenommen worden seine beim Rücktritt des Kab Nach einem neuen St Seipel der wahrscheinli Wien, 15. Oktober. Der Ministerrat hat mit Rücksicht darauf, daß sowohl der Postzentralausschuß als auch der 25er Ausschuß und die Technische Union die letzten Zugeständnisse der Regierung als ungenügend bezeicheine mit In natu der