Referendum

Polling boxes were opened throughout Germany last week for a preliminary referendum to determine whether a subsequent referendum shall be held on the question of whether property belonging to the former German nobility and seized by the Republic may be retained without compensation to the original owners. According to the German Republican Constitution, a preliminary poll of four million votes must be obtained before the ultimate referendum can be held. To be successful, the final vote must total 20 millions, which is considered virtually an impossibility, since the population of the country is but 63 millions, and the Left political parties (which alone favor the measure) have never yet won more than 13 million votes at the ordinary elections.

Retrospect. Jurists recalled that several of the states making up the Republic (notably Bavaria) were recently on the point of "settling out of court" with the Hohenzollerns, who have been highly successful in most of their suits upon which judgment has been rendered.

To forestall the "settling out of court" and the handing down at once of further decisions favorable to the Hohenzollerns, the Reichstag (TIME, Feb. 15) passed a bill decreeing that all such suits then pending shall be held in abeyance until June 30, 1926. Before that date it is expected that a compromise among the German political parties will be negotiated, on the basis of which special courts will be set up to adjudicate the claims of the nobility.