AN INVOLVED CRISIS

From Our Special Correspondent. Rotterdam, Wednesday. Kühlmann has fallen, from two causes – his own weakness and the pan-germans’ strength. His successor, Von Hintze, a retired admiral, is one of the intimates and creatures of Tirpitz. Not that it matters much whether this swashbuckler or anybody else reigns in the Wilhelmstrasse. For foreign policy will continue to be directed by Germany’s real ruler – Ludendorff. It is now clear that Kühlmann’s “defeatist” speech was a desperate attempt to save his position. Realising the growing strength of the militaristic forces working against him, he tried to rally the Socialists and Moderates, who were already showing signs of deserting. In this he failed; they, too, had had about enough of his evasions and compromises. Then he turned again, as a forlorn hope, towards the Right. But in vain. He had said that the war could not be decided by a military victory, and with these words, had spoken his own death-sentence. Judgment was delivered. And Kühlmann, like everybody else who opposed their will, has fallen a victim to those for whom chancellors, foreign secretaries, and the Reichstag are mere puppets.