Schacht Shot (Cont'd)

Henchmen of Minister President General Hermann Wilhelm Goering, autocrat of the German Four-Year Plan of Rearmament and Autarchy, have long since occupied the Ministry of Economics (TIME, Sept. 27 et seq.), yet Berlin correspondents have been unable to get confirmation that Reichsbank President Dr. Hjalmar Schacht has actually resigned as Minister of Economics. Last week Dr. Schacht went to a cocktail party staged in farewell to U. S. Consul General Douglas Jenkins who is being transferred from Berlin to London.

"You and all these rumors are causing us a lot of trouble," a correspondent said to Dr. Schacht.

"What rumors?"

"Well, many of your countrymen say you are resigning."

"If they say that, it is right!" barked Hjalmar Schacht. "I have resigned! It may be announced officially today or tomorrow. I have not been at my office at the Ministry of Economics since Aug.11."

"Are you resigning as president of the Reichsbank too?"

"Not yet!" snapped Dr. Schacht whose term as president of the Reichsbank expires next March.

Three whole days later Berlin correspondents still were unable to get any official German source to confirm that Dr. Schacht is no longer Minister of Economics. Apparently mystic Adolf Hitler wants to keep for Germany the talismanic kudos of the Schacht name in the world of international finance, while at the same time permitting General Goering to indulge in expenditures for rearmament on a scale Dr. Schacht has warned is beyond the practical limits of Germany's resources. From 1 p. m. until 6 p. m. one day last week General Goering conferred with the Fuehrer, reputedly about accepting Dr. Schacht's resignation, without result. In vain resident U. S. wits filled in the vacuum of Herr Hitler's indecision by wisecracking: "Der Fuehrer has fired the Schacht heard 'round the world."

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