On 23 December, losing patience, the leaders of the division went to the "Reichskanzlei" (Chancellery). By that point, the government, the six-man "Council of People's Deputies" that had been in office since 10 November, was on the verge of breaking apart with increasing differences emerging between its USPD and MSPD members. The "Volksmarinedivision" encountered support from the former but mostly hostility from the latter. The soldiers were ordered to hand over the keys to the Schloss and left. In the afternoon the soldiers' leaders returned, with the keys but also with a group of armed troops that took position in front of the building. According to author Sebastian Haffner what happened then was as follows: The soldiers' leaders under one Lieutenant Heinrich Dorrenbach gave the keys to Emil Barth, a People's Deputy of the USPD. Barth called Wels and told him that he had received the keys and asked him to hand over the outstanding pay. Wels refused, arguing that he only took orders from Friedrich Ebert who was joint chairman of the "Council of People's Deputies" and had also been handed the authority of government by the last Imperial Chancellor, Maximilian of Baden. When Barth sent the soldiers to Ebert, Ebert refused to see them. On Dorrenbach's orders the troops now closed all access to the "Reichskanzlei", occupied the room with the telephone switchboard and cut the lines. The "Volksbeauftragten" were thus under house arrest.