vernment troops were being attacked and surrounded. The Government, however, hesitated for a time to intervene. In Berlin the general strike was with difficulty brought to a close. After negotiations with the trade unions, which demanded greater influence upon the formation of the Government and the conduct of affairs, a new Cabinet was formed under the presi- dency of the Social Democratic Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hermann Miiller. The Minister of National Defence, Noske, whom the Independent Socialists and also a section of the Major- ity Socialists made responsible for the revival of the " militarist reaction," had previously resigned and was replaced by the Bavarian Democrat Gessler. Dr. Wirth of the Catholic Centre was appointed Minister of Finance. There were also ministerial changes in Prussia, the Social Democrat Braun becoming Min- ister-President, and Severing, also a Social Democrat, being appointed to the Ministry of the Interior a post of the first importance in times of internal disturbance. Severing had come to terms with the Ruhr insurgents on March 25 at Bielefeld, and the Government had undertaken that if the conditions were fulfilled the regular troops (Reickswehr) would not be sent into the region. The truce was not maintained, and on April 3 troops marched into the Ruhr region from the north and the east. This action had an unfortunate effect upon the policy of France. The French seized the occasion to occupy Frankfort- on-Main and the Maingau. The Ruhr district formed part of a neutral zone, 50 km. broad, which was to have been denuded of all German troops in accordance with Art. 43 of the Treaty of Versailles. By a special agreement of Aug. 8 1919, however, Germany was permitted to keep a small garrison of regulars within the region. This garrison proved too weak to suppress the insurrection, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hermann Miiller, asked for permission to reenforce these troops. France refused. When German troops were nevertheless sent into the Ruhr region in consequence of desperate appeals from part of the population, and when Hermann Miiller asked the Allied Powers to give their retrospective assent to these measures, the French Government gave orders to its troops to occupy the Maingau on April 6 as a guarantee. Germany appealed to the League of Nations without result. At a conference of the Supreme Council at San Remo (in April 1920) it was decided as appeared from a subsequent declaration of Millerand in the French Chamber that the evacuation of the Maingau should take place so soon as the numbers of the German troops in the Ruhr region were reduced to the figure permitted in the special agreement of 1919. The French evacuation accordingly took place on May 17, but not before six Germans had been killed and over 30 wounded in a collision with a detachment of black troops who were occupying the chief guardhouse at Frankfort.
The Social Democrat Dr. Adolf Koster, a journalist, succeeded Hermann Miiller as Minister for Foreign Affairs on April 14. The National Assembly, after voting a bill for transferring to the Reich those railways which had hitherto been the property of the separate German states, and after having voted the sum of one milliard marks as compensation for damage caused during the civil disturbances, closed its session on May 21 1920. On June 6 the elections for the first German republican Reichstag were held and resulted in a distinct disavowal of the Coalition Ministry. The Democratic party suffered most seriously of all, while a great increase of seats was achieved by the Independent Socialists and by the two parties of the Right (the Conserva- tives and the National Liberals, to call them by their old names). The Democrats were reduced from 74 to 45, the Social Demo- crats from 163 to 112. On the other hand the Deutsche Volks- parlei (National Liberals) were increased from 22 to 62, the Dcutschnationale Volkspartei (Conservative Right) from 42 to 66, and the Independent Socialists (extreme Left) from 22 to 81. In view of these changes, the formation of a new Govern- ment presented the greatest difficulty. The President of the Reich had ultimately to entrust the task to the Catholic Centre deputy Fehrenbach, who succeeded in forming a Cabinet on June 26. This Cabinet no longer contained any Social Demo- crats, but, for the first time since the revolution, representatives
of the Deutsche Volkspartei (National Liberals) were in the Government. Dr. Simons, who had been director of the legal department of the German Foreign Office but had resigned in 1919 with other members of the German delegation at Versailles, was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was soon the leading spirit in the new Cabinet, which to some extent fulfilled the demand of the Deutsche Volkspartei (National Liberals) for experts in ministerial posts. After the first republican German Reichstag had elected its presidential bureau from the different sections of the House, the Social Democrat Lobe being chosen president, the provisional President of the Reich, Ebert, ad- dressed a communication to the Chancellor on June 25 asking the Reichstag to fix the date for the presidential election. The Cabinet, however, decided that the definitive election of the President of the Reich should not take place until after the plebiscite in Upper Silesia.
The formation of this Government took place under politi- cal pressure from abroad. The Supreme Council had determined at San Remo on April 18 1920 to discuss, in immediate confer- ence with the German Government, certain outstanding ques- tions arising out of the Treaty of Peace. At Hythe Mr. Lloyd George and M. Millerand had agreed that this conference was to be postponed until the new German Government had been formed. After a further conference at Boulogne on June 23 had produced three Notes complaining of the lack of goodwill on Germany's part to carry out the Treaty, German ministers sat for the first time at the same table with leading representatives of the Allies at Spa from July 5-16, in order to discuss with them questions connected with the execution of the Treaty. On the German side these negotiations were conducted by Dr. Simons and the Chancellor Fehrenbach, but there were moments when almost the whole Cabinet was at Spa. Under threat of the occu- pation of the Ruhr district the following points were arranged: (i) the disarmament of the German army and its reduction to the strength of 150,0500 men by Oct. i and to the strength of 100,000 men by Jan. 1920; (2) the reduction of the monthly deliveries of coal from 2,400,000 to 2,000,000 tons, with a reser- vation on behalf of the German share of Upper Silesian coal. In the negotiations on this point considerable impression was created by the appearance of the German coal and iron magnate Hugo Stinnes, accompanied by the miners' leader, Hue, both advocating the same view. The final arrangements for the payment of all the reparations due by Germany were adjourned, pending a further conference at Geneva.
While the Spa conference was still sitting a disagreeable inci- dent took place in Berlin. On July 14, the day of the French national fete, a German workman hauled down the French flag on the embassy in Berlin. On Aug. 26 there was a further inci- dent at Breslau, where a crowd of people who had been excited by the arrival of German fugitives from Upper Silesia forced their way into the Polish and French consulates. The satis- faction which was demanded was given by saluting the French flag and by an apology conveyed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the French ambassador.
On July 1 1 the second of the plebiscites was held on the borders of East and West Prussia and resulted in a distinct German success, some 95% of the inhabitants having voted for remain- ing German. Soon afterwards East Prussia was threatened by the backwash of the Russo- Polish war, and Germany asked to be permitted to send troops into the region which was still under the administration of the Plebiscite Commission. Both Poles and Bolsheviks were crossing the frontier into East Prussia at this time and were being disarmed and interned. In accordance with the German declaration of neutrality the transit of arms and munitions to Poland was being prevented, and this led in some cases to an excessive display of zeal by the German rail- way men, some of whom were in sympathy with Soviet Russia, so that regular Allied transports, e.g. the troops in Upper Silesia, were here and there held up.
The decision of the Ambassadors' Conference on the East Prussian plebiscite gave Poland only a narrow strip of territory on the right bank of the Vistula. Eupen and Malrn6dy went
