Prager Tagblatt
- Internal Sovereignty.
- “Away with All War Debts!”
- Trotsky and Zinoviev Surrender.
The Prager Tagblatt's front page of 18 October 1926 opened with a Berlin column by S. Saenger on "internal sovereignty". He took up the alarm abroad at reports that the Hohenzollern settlement with Prussia granted the former Kaiser and his wife the palace at Homburg as a possible residence. Saenger rejected any foreign right to interfere in Germany's internal affairs but said he understood the criticism. A Paris report, headlined with Caillaux's cry to do away with all war debts, said the Radical party congress at Bordeaux had ended more calmly than expected because party leaders held back for the sake of unity. A United Press wire from Moscow reported that Trotsky and Zinoviev had admitted their errors before the Politburo. It was followed by a short Belgrade item saying that Prime Minister Uzunović would stay in office.
Translation
Internal Sovereignty.
By S. Saenger (Berlin).
[?] and affairs are no concern of foreign countries! When it became known what alarm had been stirred up abroad by the curious report that, under the settlement agreed between the House of Hohenzollern and the Prussian government, the former German Emperor had been granted the palace at Homburg for himself and his consort as a "possible" residence, this exclamation, in print or by word of mouth, became an everyday occurrence. As a German I naturally recognize no claim on the part of foreign countries to overstep, with regard to Germany, the generally respected inviolability of the internal sovereignty of states, but I understand the comments, printed and discussed, which
“Away with All War Debts!”
Caillaux's speech at the Radical
Satisfaction for Herriot. – Sarraut
Paris, October 16. The great domestic political showdown at the Radical party congress in Bordeaux, which was brought to a close yesterday, went off considerably more smoothly than had been expected. It did not bring the settling of personal rivalries and differences that the congress participants [?] had feared and the party's opponents had hoped for, so that, apart from a few outbursts of temper, no serious incidents were to be recorded. The credit belongs first and foremost to the party's leaders, who, for the sake of preserving unity and the internal truce, imposed restraint on themselves
Trotsky and Zinoviev Surrender.
Trotsky and Zinoviev surrender.
Moscow, October 16. (United Press.) It is reported that Trotsky and Zinoviev made speeches at a meeting in the Politburo in which they declared that they recognized the error of their previous views. Accordingly, the whole dispute, which has raised so much dust, would have to be regarded as settled.
Uzunović stays.
Belgrade, October 16. Prime Minister Uzunović went at 9 p.m. to the
Context
The Prussian–Hohenzollern property settlement
Saenger's column reacts to the property settlement between the state of Prussia and its former ruling house. The princely estates had been seized in the revolution of 1918–19 but not expropriated, and Prussia had bargained with the Hohenzollerns for years. A new draft presented by the Prussian Ministry of Finance on 12 October 1925 drew heavy public criticism because it would have returned about three-quarters of the disputed real estate to the dynasty. After the referendum of 20 June 1926 on expropriation failed, most state governments reached financial compromises with their former princely houses fairly quickly, so individual compensation agreements replaced expropriation without compensation. Prussia's agreement with the House of Hohenzollern was concluded on 15 October 1926, only days before this issue appeared. The clause granting the former Emperor and his wife the palace at Homburg, and the alarm it caused abroad, are Saenger's account of the settlement.
French war debts and the Mellon–Bérenger agreement
The headline "Away with all war debts!" spoke to one of the most charged questions in French politics in 1926. The Mellon–Bérenger agreement of that year greatly reduced what France owed the United States and offered relatively easy terms, yet most French people felt that Washington should waive its claims, and successive governments delayed ratification. France had wanted, as in the British agreement, a clause linking its payments to German reparations, but the United States refused any such link. The Chamber of Deputies ratified the 1926 agreement only on 21 July 1929, by 300 votes to 292 after an all-night session, and that night also ratified the Caillaux–Churchill agreement on French war debts to Britain. Caillaux's name was thus attached to the debt settlement with Britain, and the paper headlined his call at the Radical congress to scrap all war debts. The excerpted text itself, however, reports on the congress's calm course rather than on the speech.
Joseph Caillaux's standing in the Radical Party
Joseph Caillaux, whose speech gave the report its headline, was a leader of the French Radical Party and a former Minister of Finance. During the First World War he came to be seen by the public as the man willing to make a compromise peace with Germany at Britain's expense, and after a long delay he was convicted of high treason by the High Court of the Senate. He was rehabilitated after the war and served at various times in the left-wing governments of the 1920s. That past helps explain why a congress featuring Caillaux could be expected to expose rivalries. The Paris correspondent reports that the feared clash of personalities did not come, and credits the party leaders' self-restraint; the subheads also name Herriot and Sarraut, the other Radical figures in the debate.
The United Opposition and the October recantation
Trotsky and Zinoviev were the leading figures of the United Opposition, formed in early 1926 when Trotsky's Left Opposition merged with Zinoviev's New Opposition. In May 1926 Trotsky, Zinoviev and 82 others signed a declaration denouncing Stalin's leadership. Under mounting pressure, many members of the opposition accepted a compromise or feared the consequences of continuing the fight, apologized and pledged themselves anew against factionalism; the Politburo statements reported here by United Press belong to that retreat. The wire's conclusion that the whole dispute could be regarded as settled proved premature. In October 1926 Stalin's supporters voted Trotsky out of the Politburo, and in December 1927 the Fifteenth Party Congress expelled the United Opposition after declaring its views incompatible with Communist Party membership.
Original
Innere Souveränität.
[?] und Verhältnisse das Ausland an! Als bekannt wurde, welche Beunruhigung die merkwürdige Meldung draußen erweckte, daß nach dem zwischen dem Hause Hohenzollern und der preußischen Regierung vereinbarten Abfindungsvertrag dem früheren deutschen Kaiser das Schloß in Homburg für sich und seine Gemahlin als " etwaige " Residenz zuerkannt wurde, war dieser Ausruf, gedruckt oder gesprochen, alltäglich. Ich anerkenne als Deutscher selbstverständlich keinen Anspruch des Auslandes, die allgemein beobachtete Unantastbarkeit der inneren Souveränität der Staaten Deutschland gegenüber zu überschreiten, aber ich verstehe die gedruckten und besprochenen Kommentare, die sich
„Weg mit allen Kriegsschulden!“
Rede Caillaux ' auf dem radikalen Genugtuung für Herriot. - Sarraut Paris, 16. Oktober. Die große innerpolitische Auseinandersetzung auf dem radikalen Parteitag in Bordeaux, die gestern zu Ende geführt werden konnte, ist wesentlich glimpflicher verlaufen, als man angenommen hatte. Sie hat den von den Kongreßteilnehmern [?] befürchteten und von den Gegnern der Partei erhofften Austrag der persönlichen Rivalitäten und Differenzen nicht gebracht, so daß, von einigen Temperamentsausbrüchen abgesehen, ernsthafte Zwischenfälle nicht zu registrieren waren. Das Verdienst gebührt in erster Linie den Führern der Partei, die sich um die Erhaltung der Einheit und des Burgfriedens willen Zurückhaltung auferlegt
Trotzki und Sinowjew ergeben sich.
Trotzki und Sinowjew ergeben sich. Moskau, 16. Oktober. (United-Preß.) Wie verlautet, haben Trotzki und Sinowjew in einer Versammlung im Politbureau Ansprachen gehalten, in denen sie erklärten, daß sie den Irrtum ihrer bisherigen Ansicht einsähen. Demnach wäre der ganze Disput, der so viel Staub aufgewirbelt hat, als erledigt zu betrachten. Uzunovic bleibt. Belgrad, 16. Oktober. Ministerpräsident Uzunovič begab sich um 9 Uhr abends in das