REFUSED BY ARMY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 198, 21 August 1943, Page 5

REFUSED BY ARMY

ARCHDUKE OTTO AGAIN

Rec. 9.30 a.m. NEW YORK, Aug. 20

The United States Army has rejected the Archduke Otto of Austria for military service on unspecified grounds, says the New York HeraldTribune Washington correspondent. Otto registered for the draft in October 1940, shortly after his arrival

from Europe. He then declared he did not object to military service, but later changed his mind and indicated he did not desire to enter the army. The Herald-Tribune points out that it is army custom not to accept aliens who do not wish to serve, or enemy aliens. Otto is in the latter category in as much as he is a Hungarian citizen.

The Archduke Franz Josef Otto, who is 30 years of age, is the eldest son of Karl of Austria. The family was expelled from Austria in 1918. In 1022 a conference of the Legitimist parties in Hungary declared that it regarded Otto as King of Hungary, but the Hungarian Government decreed the abolition of the entire Hapsburg dynasty in Hungary. He lived abroad in succeeding years, and there was some talk of him being chosen King of Hungary if he renounced his right to the Austrian throne. In 1935 he executed a complete change of front, declaring in favour of Fascism and the Corporative State and against Parliamentary democracy. In the United States he was reported in 1941 to be organising a "Free Austria" movement.