GERM OF WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LII, Issue 158, 5 July 1921, Page 5

GERM OF WAR.

AUSTRIA AND LITTLE ENTENTE ATTEMPT ON THE REGENT. A JUGOSLAV ULTIMATUM. (By Cable.—l*ress Association.— Copyright.) VIENNA, July 4. The attempted murder of the Prince Regent Alexander of Jugoslavia at Belgrade on June 2(1 threatens to lead to results similar to those that followed the murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife at Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. The Belgrade correspondent of the ■"Neve Freie Presse" of Vienna states that three members of Parliament have been arrested on the evidence of the would-be assassin. He testified that the arrested members ordered him to murder the Prince under instructions from a Bolshevik organisation in Vienna. The Jugoslav Cabinet is sending an ultimatum, to Austria demanding action against Bolshevik and Communist circles in Austria, and the expulsion of foreign communists. The situation is regarded as carrying the possibility of war against Austria by Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Rumania. —(A. and N.Z. Cable.) The 'Tittle Entente," consisting of Jugoslavia, Czecbo-Slovakia, and Rumania, was conceived in antagonism to Austria and Hungary, and its leaders have .already given proof of very deep rooted antagonism of a charnctcr whicii has compelled the Allied Powers to utter words of sharp warning. Austria, severt.d from Hungary and shrunk to small dimensions, is militarily Inert and economically bankrupt. She is quite unable to offer any resistance if attacked even by the relatively weak Balkan Powers, who are by no means unwilling to aggrandise themselves at the' expense of the fallen empire. The motives behind the ultimatum arc thus subject to suspicion, and it is probable that the Supreme Council will have something to say before the discussion proceeds to any great length.