10,000,000 Ballots

"Thou shalt not steal!" warned the German Nationalist press in reproving biblical scare-heads.

Meanwhile the Communists and the Socialists "stole" with all possible energy. They accomplished the first stage of what their enemies call "a gigantic legal theft" by whooping up 10,000,000 Germans to cast ballots calling for a national referendum (TIME, March 15) on the question of whether property belonging to the former German nobility and seized by the Republic may be retained without compensating the original owners.

Since only 4,000,000 ballots were needed to cause the referendum to be held, its protagonists are jubilant. None the less they must roll up 20,000,000 ballots to gain the final victory.

Prince Protests. To the rabble that thus voted, former Prince Eitel Friedrich of Prussia, second son of Wilhelm der Zweite, issued a manifesto expressing his "surprise" and stigmatizing their "ingratitude": "Though the Princely Houses are willing to compromise with the State, they must be accorded the rights of first-class citizens. . . . Let it be remembered that of the 42 princes who--saw front line service during the War, 14 were killed."