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WHAT NEXT All Europe is Watching
in CENTRAL
EUROPE?
The
EVENTS during the week-end have opened a new chapter in the history of one of Europe's oldest and Imost complicated problems-the question of Austria. That country owes its importance to geography. Danube Valley is the main artery of travel or Invasion from east to west in Europe, and across the head of it, where Austria lies, run the chief European communications from north to south. Vienna atands at the greatest cross-roads of the whole con- tinent.
From the beginnings of history people have been streaming to and fro over Austrian territory.
O WARSAW
The Romans marched down the Danube in one direction; 1,000 years later, the Turks came marching up it in the other; caravans of mediaeval German traders from the north there met companies of priests and scholars setting out from Italy.
With so much. movement along and across it, the Valley of Danube gradually be- come A very
Hongkong Hotel the
Garage
Stubbs Rd.
The
Tal. 27778-9, Cosmopoli
BERLIN GERMANY
CZECHO
AJ
AUSTRIA
ITALY
д
up
tan place. Slavs, Teutons, and Magyars ve there not only in close proximity but mixed
Thongkong Telegraph.cach with the
MONDAY, MARCH 14, 1938.
DEFENCE OF DEMOCRACY
others. Pre-war Austria-Hun -
POLAND
RUMANIA
BUCARIST
JUGOSLAVIA
BELGRADE
BULGARIA.
gary counted a dozen races and existence it has since led as an
economically unbalanced as many tongues.
State of 0,000,000 inhabitants, have aroused in Germany a strong desire to take this impoverished fragment of the Ger-
Until 20 years ago this political jigsaw puzzle had been under the sovereign authority first of the Holy Roman Empire and then of its successor, the Austro-Hungarian Em- pice.
hnd
Statesmen who looked into the Central European question always made up their minds that it was too dangerous to touch. Harassed Area
man race into closer association.
That desire is shared by many people in Austria who see the prob- ability of better conditions for them- selves and their, country as part of the reinvigorated German Reich.
Twice, Indeed, has Austela publicly declared for such a union-by a plebiscite at the end of 1818, and by an agreement concluded in 1931 to abolish Customs duties between the two countries. On both occasions the former Allied Powers prevented the fulfilment of these incasures.
With the access of the National |
to
power in Germany,
T the end of the Great War a bolder spirit prevalled. President Wilson had launched the magic slogan of "self-determination," Socialists and by a series of minor treaties, under an Austrian-born Leader, the drafted by the "second strings" of urge to join up the two countries, ort the Peace Conference and signed int least to create between them the link of sympathetic and like-think- ing Governments, such as unites the various suburbs of Paris, the old Austro-Hungarian Empire was split Dritish Commonwealth of Nations, up into much-disputed racial trac-
has become stronger.
AUSTRIA'S New KEY MEN
By F. W. Memory
The trouble, was the demand from across the frontier that he should be given the key position of Minis- ter of the Interior and Security, with control of the police, and the Ingeni- TO-DAY all eyes are
turned towarda us solution of this problem bringe into prominence another figure-Dr. Vienna. They are focused on Michael Skubl, who was Director of Kurt von Schuschnigg, Austria's Security in the old Government, en- 41-years-old Chancellor, and the joying the complete confidence of men he has called to the Council Schuschnigg and all the Fatherland Chamber.
These are the men of the hour-
Front.
und of some of them the world knows The Police Chief
nothing.
The one who will bear the brunt of everything is Von Schuschnige himself the man who looks like a country schoolmaster, but as a poll- ilclan and patriot has few equals in Europe.
•
IN
TN the recent reshuffle Skubl became Under-Secretary to
Seyss-Inquart, who nominally con- trois the pollee, but it was Skubl who was given the new office of Inspector- General of all police and gendarmerie forces. That means ho not only He has been Chancellor, or, as we actually commands the police in should say, Prime Minister, ever Vienna but throughout Austria as since Dollfuss was assassinated in 1934, and in the troubled years that have passed has stood solidly and stolidly for Austrian Independence. An Austrian First
PROFESSED Royalist, be has publicly stated that the happiest day of his life will be when the Hapsburgs again occupy the Throne Austria. But that is a possibility which, as the result of the events of the last few days, has receded into the dim future.
well.
it is an arrangement which appar- ently satisfies everyone and leaves the effective command of the pollee much "as you were."
Michaci Skubl is one of the "old men" of the new Cabinet, for he wne born in 1877, and although described as a Civil Servant, has been a police-
man all his career.
Next key man is Dr. Guido Schmidt, to-day, at 37, the youngest Foreign Minister in Europe, giving our own Anthony Eden four years. Von Schuschnigg has always had He began his diplomatic career as an behind him the Fatherland (or attache to the Austrian Legation in Patriotie) Front, but the suggestion Paris in 1924. He is not a Nazi, but now comes from Vienna that the he has distinct German leanings, and loyalty of this powerful organisation is one of the men whom Berlin insist- has been shaken by the ornnesty ed should be included in the Cabinet granted to those who took part in the 1034 putsch and the assassination
of Dollfuss.
It is only during the last few days
The official German press, just before German troops in- vaded Austria, labelled the Schuschnigg Government's plan for a national plebiscite as any- thing but democratic. It was, the press declared, no fair test of the opinion of the nation. Even Nazis, it was suggested, would be forced to vote "yes" to the Government's request for an expression of approval, or otherwise, of its policies. The German argument will not im- press neutrals that the correc-
Since then Central Europe has tive steps taken by Herr Hitler
been u harassed area where
of the premature effort of the Ausright were exactly in accord with the redressed grievances, unsatisfied am-
trian Nazis in July 1984 to achieve Guido Schmidt. accepted idea of democracy. Norbitions, and ancient enmities have them by force, and the reluctance of
flourished excredingly, Everyone Italy, Germany's new ally, to see the that the name
of Dr. von Seyss- the German Inquart, the new Minister of the is it by any means proved by wants to remake the shattered jigsaw direct influence of
puzzle in his own way.
Government extended right down to Interior and Security, has been" on the German declaration that
her own frontier, whose threshold is everyone's lips. He sprang into the The isolation of the German core the Austrian plebiscite would of the former heterogeneous Austro- occupied by 200,000 Austro-Germans fierce limelight when it became have been the tragicomedy Hungarian Empire, and the precarious, annexed against their will. German-Speaking they stigmatised it. Conditions
sure.
tions.
un-
Above,
Two things have so far delayed the Michael realization of these alms-the failure
Dr. Skubl; Dr.
known that on his appointment, which carried with it control of the police, hung the fate of Austria.
He is by no means a Nazi-a Pan- UT Germany still maintains German yes, but he is an Austrian the purpose of amalgama- Örst.
In 1925 he founded the Austro- tion, or at least a working agreement, with Austria in the forefront of her German People's League, but It was foreign programme. It has more not until last year that he became than a sentimental and economic a State Counsellor. attraction for her,
Earlier he came under the influence of Dr. Dollfuss, and on the day that Partnership between Germany and the "Pocket Chancellor" was assis- Austria would give the former Power sinated he had an appointment with an enveloping position with regard him which, if it had taken place, to Czecho-Slovakia, in whose north might have brought Seyss-Inquart western corner live 3,500,000 people now 46, into the political limelight of German blood and speech, restive long before this. under Czech rule,
As it is, he has been working be hind the scenes, doing his utmost to "First bring Austria under our compose Austro-German differences. Always has he had the confidence wing: then demand autonomy for the German minority of Czecho- of Herr Schuschnigg, for he has made resolves are no secret of his conviction that Slovakia"those two written in bold characters upon the Austria should remain an independ- agenda of the Nazi Government. ent State.
BRAG AND
not a very dificult behest for Schuschnigg to concede, for the two have been friends since they were at a Jesuit college together.
Note he was the only, Austrian to accompany the Austrian Chancellor to the fateful interview at Berchtes- gaden last Saturday.
Left,
Dr. Von
Seyss-Inquart
Tall and slender, with rather ascetic features, Schmidt is by way He of being a Beau Brummell. dresses elegantly, loves the life of the Waltz City, and is never so happy as when at the Opera. Make no mistake, however, there is no keener brain in Vienna,
Married to a beautiful woman of Italian descent, Schmidt has two children and lives with his father- In-law.
Here, then, is the line-up of Austrla's three new key men under Chancellor Schuschnigg:
Seyss-Inquart, nominee of Berlin, expected perhaps to show favour to
organisations,
Nazl
Neutralleng him, the ange, police- man-cum-politician. Skubl, who has been Bghting the Nazis for years, and knows all their secrets--or should do. Guldo Schmidt, the only one of the three with an untrammelled hand but a friend of Schuschnigg, and proud, very proud, to be an Austrian.
WIN
that he could get.
had not reached the same state with the uneasy feeling that the in Austria three days ago that olive branch which has been they had when the Nazis came nourished by Berlin's ministers to power in Berlin. There was might wither overnight. unrest and discontent, to bel We shall not try to probe the
But
from ethics of the German seizure of they arose quarrels which were by no Austria, for that is what it means hopeless; and left to her amounts to. It is well-known own devices there is every rea- that many millions of the Aus- son to believe that Austria trian people are Germans by would have solved them in time, blood and that they have claims for Austrians are practical and
of kinship which encourage the well-balanced people, much like
desire for the protection, politi- the German themselves. What-
cal and economic, which union ever the excuses, however Herr
with the powerful Fatherland Hitler's action is explained or justifled in Germany, the world brings to them. At the same which knows the meaning of time there is another vast num- democracy will not condone it.ber of persons, not Germans, Becauso there is a squabble in who have no desire for that
It is a pity that boastfulness is Lion whatever you waxed cloquent skilled engineer a neighbour's home that is no union; have even fought. the
by idea of "anschluss," How much regarded in this country as one on the subject of the lady's charms more miles an hour out of his engine reason for interference friends or relatives if inter-more will they detest the fact of the unpardonable sins. A and your own skill in upholding than the makers, ever put into it, man may know he is good at of government from Berlin! It something, he may prove it to IN A ROUNDABOUT WAY
To come to more recent years, the will be interesting, in view of his own satisfaction and that
of the world in general, but let bloods of the Regency period not] While it is to be hoped that Germany's demands for con-him be even suspected of putting only had an excellent opinion of
of vast numbers of miles the crisis has been safely passed siderate treatment of German the thought into words, and im themselves, but had no hesitation in gallon. He speaks with bated breath. out announcing it to the world at large. of the frequent occasions on which and that no new aggravating in-
Even as lately as the middle of the
touches needle speedometer Victorian era an Englishman assumed cidents will be added to the minorities elsewhere, to see how mediately he becomes an
treata she
the non-German
In the good old days, before the with a delightful lack of humility. And he is not a whit abush- tension of Europe, the Austrian
forty-five, we invariably "minority" in Austria, which, pen became mightier than the sword, that he was more than the equal of ed when, doddling along at a steady
the man who did not brag of his own three men of any other nation on with case, coup will not be readily forgot-
and extrol his own carlli. when it comes right down to.it, achievements ten, particularly by Germany's
2000 found himself despised prowess 200
Just as the knights of sid had neighbour atates.
away with them.
mogle properties Table were braggards to a man. All nothing to alleviate the ever-but now a politically voiceless who sat at King Arthur knights actions on that asstamption; and Rot
Ask me what quality has made swords People like the un-ileir fights were, by their own England what she is, and, without enabling them to how down all prosent and recently growing one.
I answer "brag" Nor opposition, wo the modern sportsman fear, that boundaries will be up-fortunate Dr. Schuschnigg will account, against vastly bigger and hesitation,
by at least three I I say it. For psychologically brag vellous bat, club, or racket. There is not, after all, so very much dif- set by ambitious powers in probably be asked to leave. Still woonger opponents, and usually they am I being cynical or sarcastic when gives most of the credit to some mar
is an excellent-thing.
between The Middle Ages, the Age of Because boasting is the subject of ference defiance of treaty and pact and less fortunate political opponents
"Excaliburn and
Bobby protestations of peaceful inten-will possibly spend a good fow Chivalry, was also an Age of Brag. a taboo, we have to be careful what
You wore your lady's glove or scarf wa brag about, but it is very amus "Calamity Jane."
There is no need to be nahamed tions. The fact that Germany of their days in prison. And on your helm as a perpetual chal- ing to the psychologist to study some
lenge to all comers that you were of the devices we employ.
of these harmless gazeonadea. · Quite to get
the revers, in fact, If there is any marched over a frontier and yet the German press has talked willing to provas by force of arms round the convention. took the risk of war, remote as of un-democratic government in that the exceeded in beauty and For instance, the man who claim merit at all in us boasting keys us
virtue the girl blend of any other ed to be a daring and skilful, motor- up to give, of dur best:1. The motor may have been, leaves one Viennal
knight-And-withosit: any provoca ist, and was in addition such a (Combated on Page 5.)
cession is not wanted.
cast.
them.
would be regarded by his fellow- men with the gravest distaste. So he claims no credit for himself, but sings
the praises of his "old bus." He tells of amazing average speeda He chants over Incredible distances.
to the
The
pass hi
What is more, he based all his GOOD SWORD EXCALIBUR It has done is probably a large majority and acglected. The gallant knights
lo one.
with
King
Arth