WAR MINISTER’S DECLARATION.

BERLIN, THURSDAY.

The revelations regarding continual intrigues on the part of reactionaries are attracting great attention in the Press. The Berliner Tageblatt publishes an interview with Lord Kilmarnock on the subject, in which the British Chargé d’affaires is reported to have said:

“I am convinced that a new military attempt would provoke the greatest indignation in England, and that the British Government would repudiate it decisively. Every chance that Germany has of obtaining help in the way of food, raw materials, and credits would be spoilt by any kind of acts of violence. The statement which I made on March 19 in this connection has been approved by my Government. It is only necessary to have read the English newspapers during the Kapp revolt to know that any attempt to establish a reactionary régime would be condemned most sharply by public opinion in England.”

Speaking in the National Assembly yesterday, the Imperial Defence Minister, Herr Gessler, announced that he had issued orders for the arrest of Major Ehrhardt, the commander of the Naval Division, adding that the 3rd Naval Brigade was being conveyed to Muenster, where it would be disarmed, and if not peacefully then by force, but in any case it would be disbanded. “The news which is reaching us from Pomerania,” continued the Minister, “is extremely serious. I must, therefore, warn all those who influence the Conservative Press that we are no longer prepared to put up with any fresh disturbances.”

The Minister of Education has instructed the directors of the high schools to forbid their pupils joining any kind of military organisation, and to summon all those who may have already joined any such organisation to resign.

Vorwärts to-day publishes an appeal by the Berlin Committee of the Social Democratic party, summoning all members of the party to sign their names to a document in which the organised workers, employees, and officials declare themselves “ready to defend the Republic against the internal enemy.” The same paper also publishes alarmist reports from Pomerania, and states that in Greifswald volunteers and students are continually practising rifle shooting and the throwing of hand grenades. No attempt has been made, it says, to disband the Baltic troops, which are assembled in large numbers at Krackow, and officers in mufti are said to be going from garrison to garrison preparing the ground for a new outbreak. The Pomeranian farmers have for the past week been withholding food supplies, under the influence of the reactionary circles. “Even in the middle of Berlin,” adds Vorwärts, “as, for instance, at the Zoological Gardens, a recruiting station for officers has been opened, at which volunteers are openly received.” – Reuter.