THE HAPSBURGS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 100, 8 February 1936, Page 5

THE HAPSBURGS

QUESTION OF RESTORATION. MUCH POLITICAL INTRIGUE. PARIS ACTIVITIES IX DOUBT. /United Press Association —Copyright' (Received This Day, 10.3-5 a.m.) LONDON, February 7. The Paris correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” says that the Quai cl’Or say (the French Foreign Office) heaved a sigh of relief as soon as Prince von ,Starhemberg (Vice-Chan-cellor of Austria) left for Vienna, as Paris was fast becoming a hotbed of Austrian political intrigue, culminating in the Archduke Otto’s dash from Belgium to Paris, despite plain advice that a meeting with Prince von Starhemberg would do the Hapsburg cause more harm than good! It is almost impossible to get at the real truth of the situation, which is abounding with contradictions and blunders. The arcji-blunderer seems to have been the Archduke Otto, but everyone else concerned made mistakes. The report that Prince yon Starhemberg’s assurances to M. Flandin that Austria would not attempt to restore the Hapsburgs without first consulting the Little Entente is now hotly denied. An Austrian Government spokesman pointed out that for Austria to ask permission of the States formerly part of her Empire would be unworthy of the great past traditions. Everyone is asking whether M. Flandin misunderstood Prince von Starhemberg or that the journalists misunderstood M. Flandin, or that Prince von Starhemberg, in a moment of aberration, actually made a promise which he now wants to recall. Prince von Starhemberg declared at a final interview: “Austria has not abandoned the monarchial principle.’ He said she intended as a sovereign State to order her own affairs, which included the monarchist question. Nevertheless she would do nothing to disturb the peace of Europe. ' It is equally obscure whether tho Archduke Otto saw Prince von LStarhemberg. Though the Austrian Legation flatly denies there was a meeting, it appears there were some direct contacts, if not between Prince von Starhemberg and the Archduke at least be? tween Prince von Starhemberg and Baron Weisner (bead of tho Monarchist Party) who also “happened to be in Paris.” Baron Weisner made a statement to the press admitting a conversation with Prince von Starhemberg, using the almost identical voids of Prince von Starhemberg’s final interview. He emphasised that restoration of the monarchy could be carried out at a moment’s notice.