While this was going on, a detachment of Marines had entered Wels's office, compelled him at the point of their guns to pay out the eighty thousand marks due them, and had then marched him to the Royal Stables, where he was locked up in a cellar and threatened with death. Ebert, Scheidemann and Landsberg, without consulting their colleagues, ordered the Minister of War to employ all force necessary for the release of Wels. At the last moment, however, negotiations were entered into and Wels was released shortly after midnight on the Marines' terms. Spartacans and radical Independents took the part of the Marines. Richard Mueller, Ledebour, Daeumig and other members of the defunct original _Vollzugsrat_ were galvanized into new opposition. Ledebour's "Revolutionary Foremen of Greater Berlin Industries" demanded the retirement of the Independent Socialist members of the cabinet, and the demand was approvingly published by _Die Freiheit_, the party's official organ. The head and forefront of the Majority cabinet members' offending was their order to the War Minister to use force in upholding the government's authority, and radical revolutionists condemn force when it is employed against themselves. The position of Haase and Dittmann as party leaders was seriously shaken. The left wing of their party, led by Eichhorn and Ledebour, was on the point of disavowing them as leaders and even as members of the party. At the party's caucuses in Greater Berlin on December 26th, held to nominate candidates for delegates to the coming National Assembly, Ledebour refused to permit his name to be printed on the same ticket with Haase's, and Eichhorn secured 326 votes to 271 for the party's head. On the evening of the same day the Independents in the cabinet submitted eight formulated questions to the _Vollzugsrat_, in which this body was asked to define its attitude as to various matters. The _Vollzugsrat_ answered a majority of the questions in a sense favorable to the Independents. Its answer to one important question, however, gave the Independents the pretext for which they were looking. The question ran: "Does the _Vollzugsrat_ approve that the cabinet members Ebert, Scheidemann and Lansberg on the night of December 23d conferred upon the Minister of War the authority, in no manner limited, to employ military force against the People's Marine Division in the Palace and Stables?" The executive council's answer was: "The people's commissioners merely gave the order to do what was necessary to liberate Comrade Wels. Nor was this done until after the three commissioners had been advised by telephone by the leader of the People's Marine Division that he could not longer guarantee the life of Comrade Wels. The _Vollzugsrat_ approves." The _Vollzugsrat_ itself presented a question. It asked: