Evening star., 1932-05-31
Exit Bruening.

Win an uneXpectedneSS that must
leave the world gasping as to what next
portends in Germany, DR.. Heinrich
Bruening has resigned from the chan
cellorship. With him goes his entire
cabinet. President Won Hindenburg
persuaded himself that the chancellor
Socialist-Centrist coalition government
no longer represented the will OF the
country. A no less compelling motive
may have been the Presidents reported
conviction that the army would not
support the Bruening regime in case OF
political uprising. Confronted by all
these conditions, the chief executive
acted with the soldierly promptitude and
decision that characterize him and vir-
tually invited the chancellor to walk
the plank
How fully justified is Herr Hitler's
boast, upon hearing Of the cabinets
fall, that Our hour has come" will be
revealed in due course. The National
Socialists eSchew participation in a
stop gap" government. confident that
general election will vault them into
office in their own right. That it i.
the rising "Nazi" tide throughout Ger
many that swamped Dr. Bruening can
not be doubted Every recent circum
stance conspired to make the late gov
time
First came the immense vote rolled up
by the Hitlerites in the presidential elec-
ton. Then ensued the practical cap
ture Of the Prussian Diet. along with
National Socialist majorities in other
German states. The immediate result
OF these victories was the retirement of
Gen. Won Groener minister of defense.
the "NaZis'" archfoe, who irstigated
the rehabilitation of their political
storm troops" As a last straw, the
German Supreme Court declared that
material seized in raids on Hitlerite
headquarters last March was not in
eliminating. 1t was because Of allega-
tions that the raids produced evidence
ler'S private army was wiped out. There
was finally the growing hostility to the
Bruening policy Of government by de-
cree. the latest manifestation of which
was the plan to appropriate junker
estates in East Prussia and convert
them into peasant holdings.
President Won Hindenburg no longer
found occasion to doubt that Chancellor
Bruening was widely discredited by this
chain of developments and determined
to dsplace him. There is little prospect
that Herr Hitler will be invited to sue
ceed him, at least not at once. But
! when new Reichstag elections take
| place. as they are bound to in the early
future. it is almost foregone conclusion
that the "Nazis" will emerge as the
strongest party in Parliament. Hitler's
! claim to the chancellorship would then
be practically indisputable The cabinet
which will now supplant the Bruening
ministry has the impending Lausanne
reparations conference before it. After
that it will have to face the Reichstag
Dissolution is likely. and then an cleo
ton. On that Hitler and the "Nazis''
| will pin their final bid and hope for
power.
NJ Herriot, who is about to become
premier of France. is conservative when
he describes the German cabinet crisis
as most disquieting" 1t contains. as
a matter of fact, possibilities little less
than alarming Herr Hitler stands for
outright reputation of the Treaty of
Versailles. lock, stock and barrel
Should he signalize the accession of the
"Nazis" to authority by overt acts in
defiance of Germany's economic mill
tary and political Obligations, Europe
will be face to face with a situation of
immeasurable gravity.
The French, even under liberalized
Herriot left government, would hardly
stand idly by and see the pact of YER
sailles turned into a scrap of paper.