The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1920-04-23
SOUTH GERMANY
TALKS SECESSION
Bavaria, Baden, Wurttemberg
and Hesse Threaten to Split
Away From Prussia.
BERLIN is LOSING INFLUENCE.
Bavaran Guards Refuse to Disarn.
Defy Focf to Come and Get Rifles.
"Zigzag Policy" of Govern
ment Criticized.

Berlin.-A secession movement In
south Germany, centering in Munich
and affecting Bavaria and neighboring
states, is reported in dispatches re-
ceived here to be gaining strength.
The reports give out i'll disguised hints
that the south Germans, dissatisfied
with the coalition government In Ber-
lin, particularly because Of its recent
concessions to the labor unions, are
pushing a separatist campaign.
The Munich Post, a Socialist news
paper, prints the details of negotia-
tions which are aid to have been car
ried on by Rheim, the Catholic peas
ant leader in Bavaria, and his assist
ant, Ankenbrand, with officers in the
Bavarian army, looking toward coup
d'etat which would set up General
Ludendorf as dictator in the south.
Similar dissatisfaction with the Ber-
lin administration has been expressed
in the west. The Catholic newspapers
in particular are restive because of
what they call the governments dila-
toriness in handling tho Ruhr insurrec-
ton and have expressed themselves
plainly in some cases in limiting a dis
solution of the republic.
Thus Tremonia, the leading Cath
olic organ of western Germany, calls
,,oo, Tho oo,varnr,ont fo ahopdop jts
zigzag policy in dealing with the
REDS" 1t says: "We must either go
with the Berlin government or against
it. We know those are harsh words,
but the necessities of the hour justify
them"
A commission representing the
Reichswehr troops operating in the re-
gion of Essen and also the Socialist
and Catholic labor organizations there,
which is in Berlin to make representa-
tions regarding the pacification of that
region, demands that the government
punish the Red leaders Immediately.
1t further demands that the court mar
tials be held at the front without de-
lay in order that the punishments may
be effective.
The commission also protests against
the interference of the labor unions in
the government
The newspapers here point to these
demands as part of the movement in
the south and west to foster secession
tendencies under the slogan "Cut loose
from Berlin" They assert the fact
that the movement is gaining support
daily is due to the slackness with
which the government has dealt with
the -insurrectionists.
The Palatinate Peasants Associa-
tion has sent President Ebert a sharp
ly worded note protesting against the
concession Of the government to the
unions and threatening, if the govern
ment yields further, to call general
strike of the peasantry or to take even
more extreme measures.
The mind of the public is occupied
largely with internal political affairs.
The Kapp adventure and subsequent
developments left grave discomfort in
The subsection of the government by
the labor unions has evoked sharp crit
icism in both the Catholic and Demo
cratic organs, where the view of ex-
pressed that Germany is now under a
sort of soviet system through the sur
render of the government to the work
ers.
Observation-Disclosures of south Ger
man states met secretly here, Bavaria,
Baden, Wurttemberg and Hesse being
represented. Ostensibly tn, meeting
was called for discussion of CONNER.
cial relations, but it is believed it con-
cerned issues recently contributing to
widening the gulf between these states
and the central government, in which
Bavaria has been a dominating force.