own trade
union official at Elberfeld, named Sauerbrey, who had been declared
totally unfit for military service because he had lost several
fingers on his left hand, was arrested and charged with treason.
He was acquitted, but instead of obtaining his freedom he was
immediately called up and is now in training for the front. Herr
Dittmann said that this case had caused intense bitterness, and
added:--

"The Military Command at Munster is surprised that the feeling in
the whole Wupper Valley is becoming more and more discontented, and
the military are now hatching new measures of violence in order to
be able to master this discontent. One would think that such
things came from the madhouse. In reality they represent
conditions under martial law, and this case is only one of very
many."

Herr Dittmann gave several instances of men declared unfit for
service who had been called up for political reasons, and he ended
his speech as follows:--

"In regard to all this persecution of peaceful citizens there is a
regular apparatus of _agents-provocateurs_, provided by officials
of all kinds, and the apparatus is growing every day. If these
persecutions were stopped a great number of these agents and
officials could be released for military service. In most cases
they are mere shirkers, and that is why they cling to their posts
and _seek every day to prove themselves indispensable by
discovering all sorts of crimes_. Because they do not want to go
to the trenches other people must go to prison. Put an end to the
state of martial law, and help us to root up a state of things
which disgraces the German name."

The Alsatian deputy, Herr Haus, said that Alsace-Lorraine is
suffering more than any other part of the country, and that more
than 1,000 persons have been arrested without any charge being
brought against them. Herr Seyda, for the Poles, said that the
Polish population of Germany suffers especially from the system of
preventive arrest.

In his contemptuous reply, which, showed that the Government was
confident that it had nothing to fear from the majority in the
Reichstag, Herr Helfferich said:--

"The institution of the dictator comes from ancient Rome, from the
classical Republic of antiquity. (Laughter.) When the State was
fighting for its existence it was found necessary to place supreme
power in the hands of a single man, and to give this Roman dictator
authority which was much greater than the auth