GERMANY: Down, Nearly Out

Chancellor Marx held his first reception of the foreign press representatives. In an address he spoke gloomily of the present situation, made it evident that Germany was at the end of her resources. Later, a semi-official statement said in part: “There can no longer be any doubt that the Reich Government, despite all its desperate endeavors to balance the budget by utmost economy measures, by stopping the note presses and by putting the taxes on a gold basis, cannot attain this objective without outside help. It cannot be done with our own means and our own strength.”

The Marx Cabinet decided to make overtures to the French Government in a final effort to extricate the country from its terrifying financial and economic situation. Dr. von Hoesch, German Chargé d’Affaires at Paris, delivered a note to Premier Poincaré of France asking for the institution of direct negotiations between the two countries on the Ruhr and Rhineland territories.

M. Poincaré replied that there was now no objection to negotiating directly with the German Government, but that there could be no discussion of any subject which directly or indirectly implied revision of the Treaty of Versailles. As regards the Ruhr and.

Rhineland, M. Poincaré said that his Government would not enter into any discussion on the question of restricting the powers of the Franco-Belgian authorities and the Interallied High Commission, which together control the Ruhr and Rhineland.

The Echo de Paris said: “Chancellor Marx is simply taking up the thread of the Cuno and Stresemann maneuvers.”

Foreign Minister Stresemann, in a speech in Berlin, said: “We are the sick limb of the European body politic.” He mentioned a long list of indignities from which Germany had been forced to suffer and stated that Germany had never recognized and would never recognize the legality of the Ruhr occupation.