Only one of the four German deputies who arrived in the United States Sunday on an invitation from the State Department to spend a month touring the U.S. at the expense of the American Government voted for the Israel reparations pact, it was revealed here today.
An analysis of the voting record on the reparations treaty disclosed that only Gerhard Schroeder of the Christian Democrats voted for the measure, while Karl Pfleiderer absented himself and Franz J. Strauss and Dr. Hans Joachim von Merkiatz abstained and persuaded a number of other deputies to abstain. All four, members of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, will meet members of Congress and high U.S. Government officials during their visit in the U.S.
Study of the voting record highlighted the fact that only about half of the members of Chancellor Kon rad Adenauer’s Christian Democratic Party voted for the reparations pact and that the majority of the affirmative votes were provided by the Social Democratic Party, an opposition group. The Socialists demanded and got a roll call vote on the last ballot.
Of the 401 members of the House, 239 voted for, 86 abstained, 35 voted negatively and 41 were listed as absent. Only 84 of the 146 deputies of Mr. Adenauer’s party voted affirmatively, while 39 abstained, five voted against and 18 were absent, only nine of them with the permission of the chair. Of the 41 absentees of all parties, 15 had been present several hours earlier when a vote was recorded on another bill. Thirty-six of the absentees showed up the next day.
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