Hindenburg Unhurried

Throughout the week President von Hindenburg continued his desultory search for a new Chancellor (TIME, Dec. 14). Although the Luther cabinet has officially resigned, it continues to function according to German custom until a new Chancellor is appointed. Thus the government of the Deutsches Reich went on exactly as before.

The Herr President first made a courteous gesture toward the Centrists by requesting their leader, Herr Fehrenbach, to attempt to form a cabinet. No one expected that Herr Fehrenbach would be successful. The votes at his party's command are too few to form the nucleus of a coalition. A day or two later he announced that for him the task was an impossibility.

Next Herr Koch, chairman of the Democratic Party, was invited to try his hand. He concocted a tentative cabinet which was to include four sometime Chancellors: Luther, Stresemann, Marx and Mueller. Shortly it was found that even with this impressive group of ministers Herr Koch would be unable to compose the differences between the People's Party and the Socialists, who in the past have made a "big coalition" impossible.

As Herr Koch vanished into the political limbo, rumors were again current that Dr. Luther will have to resume in name the office which he still exercises in fact, and continue to carry on with a minority government. Meanwhile President von Hindenburg announced that he would declare a Christmas recess on all attempts to form a cabinet. Observers opined that the matter may drift unsettled well into the New Year, since no emergency threatens.