Opinion in London Following Establishment of Cabinet Dictatorship in Germany

Opinion here is busy estimating the influence on the position of German Jews, of the new Constitutional situation created by the Enabling Act, which the Reichstag passed yesterday. In particular, informed circles weigh the probable course of Nazi anti-Jewish activities, in view of a state of affairs which is regarded as politically stable, for the time being.

From the Jewish point of view, the passage in Hitler’s speech dealing with the State’s relation to the German denominations, though it did not refer specifically to the Jews, is considered most important. He declared “in the true Christian confessions, the Government sees the most important factors for the preservation of our individuality as a people. Their rights shall not be touched. . . . The Government will meet all other confessions with objective justice, but will not tolerate that adherence to a certain confession or membership of a particular race should be interpreted as dispensation from legal obligations or as a license to commit or tolerate crimes.”

This passage is taken as referring particularly to Jews and as foreshadowing a definite policy in which members of the Jewish faith and race are to be reduced to a status lower than that of members of the Christian confessions.

Speculation is also rife as to Hitler’s intentions with regard to Paragraphs IV and V of the Nazi program, which formed so prominent a feature of the Hitlerist agitation during all the election campaigns. The paragraphs in question are:

“Paragraph IV—Only a member of our people may be a citizen. Only those are regarded as members of our people, as are of German blood, without regard to confession. No Jew can, therefore, be a member of our people.”

“Paragraph V—Those who are not citizens should reside in Germany only as guests and must be subjected to alien law.”

Although the Enabling Act set up an actual Dictatorship in Germany, it is not regarded as creating, as had previously been feared, an actual Nazi Dictatorship in the person of Hitler. On the contrary, there are a number of safeguards in the Enabling Act to which due regard should be paid.

In the first place, the Dictatorship is vested in the Cabinet of eleven members, of which three are Nazis; Hitler, Goering and Frick. The remaining members are either Nationalists or persons directly appointed by President von Hindenburg. The actual majority in the Cabinet is held by followers of Von Papen and Hugenberg.

The chances of any interference with civil and religious rights of Jews are dependent just as much on the attitude of the President and the followers of von Papen and Hugenberg, as they are on those of Hitler. It had previously been hoped that the provision in the Constitution calling for a two-third majority for any law deviating from the Constitution would serve as a sufficient buttress against any law aiming at depriving the Jews of their rights of citizenship, particularly as the combined Hitler and Nationalist parties commanded only 52% of the Reichstag votes.

With the passage of the Enabling Act empowering deviation from the Constitution, however the maintenance of Jewish rights becomes more than ever dependent upon the goodwill of the President, von Papen, and Hugenberg. In the case of von Papen there is no real record of systematic anti-Semitism, or any avowedly anti-Jewish platform in any of his previous election addresses. It may be said, also, that even Hugenberg, although his party propaganda endeavored at times to compete with that of the Nazis, has not carried the Nationalist credo to the Hitlerist extreme. He has certainly lent himself to anti-Jewish agitation, but he has a reputation for worldliness and discretion, which make it reasonable to anticipate that he may act as a brake on the unbridled anti-Semitism of his Nazi colleagues in the Cabinet.

The place of President von Hindenburg, however, in the new scheme of things in Germany is one of the utmost importance. Article II of the Enabling Act specifically leaves untouched the prerogatives of the President. He thus, still retains the right to appoint and dismiss the Chancellor, a power which may prove of extreme value in the case of a Cabinet which is unequally yoked, and in which the Nazis have only three seats. As against this, it is not overlooked that the Enabling Act gives to Hitler the power of issuing decrees which may become effective without the approval or the signature of the President. Much is held to depend upon how this power will operate in actual practice.

On the whole, though opinion here regards the prospect as none too happy for German Jewry, it does not see it as unrelievedly gloomy, or as holding no prospect of resistance to the realization of the Nazi anti-Jewish program.