Show GERMANS WANT fRI f Demand For Closer Relations With the United States EXPULSIONS OF DANES RESULT IN GREAT DAMAGE TO GERMAN COMMERCE t Increase In Lese Majestie Prosecutions Prosecu-tions Condemned By the Centrists Meat Inspection Bill Passed By the Prussian CabinetSimplifies the Method of Inspection t Copyrighted by Associated Press Berlin Jan iThe German chambers cham-bers of commerce and industrial associations asso-ciations in their annual reports this week have referred more or less fre Cy to Germanys trade with the United States A majority of them express the hope that commercial relations will become ° be-come closer and more friendly The Leipsic chamber of commerce one of the most important in Germany deplores de-plores the present uncertainty of the commercial relations with both the United States and Great Britain and says it trusts the government will strive to the utmost to reestablish permanently the best relations with both countries The Bund der Indus tnelle the Rhenish manufacturing association as-sociation however urges the government govern-ment to adopt prompt and energetic retaliatory measures against the United Unit-ed States in view of the palpable violations vio-lations of the treat The bundesrath is now discussing a government bill the socalled Leix heinz framed to suppress certain features fea-tures of public and private immorality It also affects literature and art This bill is a weakened copy of a measure repeatedly introduced in the reichstag by Centrists and defeated The Centre which is the dominant faction of the reichstag publishes through its main organ the Cologne Volks Ileitung its intention of fighting the two leading government measures the antistrike and military bills At the same time it condemns the constant con-stant increase in lese majestic trials and impugns the motives underlying most of these cases saying it deplores the growing espionage which is bred thereby The expulsion of the Danes from North Schleswig continues unabated and an overwhelming majority of the papers continue to complain of the policy pol-icy and deny its political wisdom The Cologne Gazette is an exception to the rule It urges all Germans to approve the measures which it asserts are necessary for patriotic reasons The central committee representing all the commercial clubs and associations associa-tions at Berlin met this week and formally for-mally condemned the expulsions which tl committee collected statistics toE to-E 10 have already done a vast amount of damage to German commerce Influenza1 which seize the emperor last Sunday kept him in doors until Friday It was of a rather serious type and a high fever weakened the patient considerably The disease complicated com-plicated his majestys old can trouble which aused Mm severe pain The emperor was able to walk t of doors on Friday iththe empress SLANDERED THE ARMY A case in which the ministers of war of Prussia Bavaria and Saxony figured as prosecutors has just been concluded in the imperial court at Leipsic The defendant was a physician Dr Bitting hoff who was charged with calumniating calumniat-ing officers of the German army The offense was committed in June last on I the eve of the general election in a beer saloon at Westphalia where Dr Bittinghoft noisily held forth on the subject of war declaring the populace did not want war and that if the soldiers sol-diers were allowed to take their choice they would all elect to return home instead in-stead of fightIng He also said the sol diers who took part in the Franco German war were inspired merely by Dutch courage and it was the universal uni-versal practice of their officers to crop under the shelter of hedges These remarks re-marks were reported to the military authorities who interpreted them as being an accusation of cowardice against the officers Thereupon the three ministers of war in their capacity capac-ity of official chiefs prosecuted Dr Bittinghoft who was fined SOO marks The doctor appealed to the supreme court which has now confirmed the decision of the lower court Awaiter of Chemnitz named Barthel has been granted permission at his own request to come to Berlin on Emperor Em-peror Williams birthday which occurs Jan 27 to construct on the dinner table of the castle a bust of his majesty out of table napkins MEAT INSPECTION BILL The imperial meat inspection bill is again one of the foremost subjects discussed dis-cussed by the German newspapers This measure early in the week was finally final-ly passed by the Prussian cabinet and has gone to the bundesrath which it is understood will make short work of it as each of the federal governments has already considered it and the present pres-ent shape of the bill is virtually the result re-sult of mutual concessions made by the several governments From an authoritative author-itative source it is learned that the task of agreeing to its final form proved very difficult to the South German Ger-man governments and especially Wur temburg and Bavaria which originally opposed any such legislation since they thus far have not been saddled with trichinosis inspection and saw no reason why the whole empire should be saddled with an expensive meat inspection in-spection merely because Prussia wished it It was in deference to these South German votes that the Prussian cabinet gradually cut down the demands de-mands and a number of the Agrarian features of the original draft of the bill were eliminated Two important modifications are the dropping of the clause providing for state remuneration remunera-tion for all cattle and meat declared unfit forsale and the Inserting of a clause enforcing the inspection of all cattle and swine slaughtered for private pri-vate consumption The correspondent here for the Associated As-sociated Press interviewed a high Prussian official concerning the measure meas-ure who said For America the most vital and interesting in-teresting features are that it simplifies and unifies the method of inspection and that there will only be one inspection inspec-tion There will be no prohibition against any class of American meat though very strong pressure was brought to bear on the government to exclude certain kinds and especially sausage canned meats and lard The bundesrath however is given full power pow-er under the bill to make in case of necessity a decree declaring against any and all klndsof foreign meat But such action will not be taken unless there is the strongest reason for it A difficult problem is the treatment ill ti of American sausage which is left to the bundesrath and reichstag Nothing Noth-ing in the whole bill is devised with the view of impeding or preventing American imports rae whole bill is fair and its methods cannot be impugned im-pugned even in America The foregoing statements were substantially sub-stantially corroborated by an American Ameri-can expert in Berlin to whom they were communicated |