" Rid Me of This Man! "

In a recent address to the Prussian Diet, Herr Severing, Minister of the Interior, mentioned Ludendorff by name on several occasions. He charged him with what was tantamount to conspiracy against the Republic, and thereby intimated that Ludendorff's part in the reactionist activities is understood but not appreciated. The aims of the royalist organizations are delightfully naive; reestablishment of the monarchy, expulsion of the French and Belgians from the Ruhr, progressive negotiations with Poland in order to keep the front door to Russia wide open and suppression of all revolutionary elements in the country! The aims of the Government are diametrically opposed to the royalists: consolidation of the Republic, war of attrition against the French and Belgians, negotiations when possible with Poland and suppression of overzealous reactionary organizations in the country. Between the two factions the whole of Germany is plunged into wildest pandemonium, which is in turn aggravated by the radicals fighting against all comers--for peace! In a country gone sick with misery a solitary phantom strides the earth with noiseless, slippery, dreadful steps --Ludendorff. This crafty man is the leader of the monarchists. He moves but is not seen. From Munich he directs the operations of his reactionary adherents in much the same way that he directed the army supplies when he was Quartermaster General in the Imperial Army. He writes, make speeches, acts for the cause of royalism; but in all this he makes sure that his pen, his tongue, and his actions do not betray him. A double interpretation can be put upon everything he does; he moves for the restoration of the monarchical system of government, but he is always seen with legal eyes as a good republican. A storm is breaking above his head and, republican or monarchist, he is playing a dangerous game. As Henry II of England once said of Thomas a Becket, Germany now says of General Ludendorff: "Will no one rid me of this troublesome man?"