File No. 763.72/3521
The Chargé in the Netherlands (Langhorne) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12 p.m.]
772. My 765.1 National Liberal member of the Prussian Lower House introduced motion asking for a bill reconstituting the House of Lords on more democratic lines. Bernhard in Vossische Zeitung sharply attacked Chancellor for not rebuking House of Lords for its criticism of the Reichstag and said he could not understand the confidence of the parties of the Left in the Chancellor unless they trusted that Hindenberg would win the war soon and then everything else would come of itself. Yesterday the Chancellor spoke in the Prussian Lower House and protested against the sharp criticism of the Reichstag heard in the House of Lords; he repeated that the events of the war must and will lead to a reform of internal policy and that the Government would introduce a bill for the reform of suffrage in Prussia but that this could not be done in the midst [Page 67] of war. He said that a forceful foreign and internal policy would be necessary after the war but that this would not be possible unless the political rights of the great body of the people permitted their fundamental and intelligent cooperation in the works of state.
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