PATRIOTISM IN AUSTRIA

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21081, 5 February 1934, Page 11

PATRIOTISM IN AUSTRIA

* STREET DEMONSTRATION GESTURE IN REPLY TO HITLER (Received February 4. 7.40 p.m.) LONDON, February 3.

The Vienna correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian" says 90,000 peasants gathered in the streets ot Vienna to take part in a "proDollfuss and anti-Nazi demonstration" as an answer to Herr Adolf Hitler's suggestion that his doctrines were shared by the majority of Austrians. Sixty trains and many cars brought the peasants to the capital. Herr Reither, chairman of the peasants' association, said that he wished Hitler could see the demonstration. Pie declared that Austrians would decide their own fate by a democratic electoral system within the guilds.

AUSTRIA AND GERMANY APPEAL TO LEAGUE OF NATIONS (Received February 4, 11.20 p.m.) GENEVA, February 4. Austria's appeal against Germany is expected to be lodged on February 5, necessitating an immediate convention. The council of the League will meet on February 8. COMMUNISTS SHOT BY POLICE ATTEMPTED ESCAPE FROM , CUSTODY

BERLIN, February 2.

Following their escape from a police van which was proceeding to Potsdam from Berlin, four wellknown communists were shot dead. One of their number was Herr Johan Scheer, successor to Herr Thaelmann in the leadership of the communists.

The four men, though in a concentration camp when the crime was committed, were allegedly involved in the murder of a carpenter named Alfred Kattnew, who was found shot in his bed yesterday morning. The actual murderer is unknown, but it is asserted that Scheer and his associates conspired with him to cause Kattnew's death. It is officially reported that when the van was slowing down on an icy patch of the road the prisoners jumped out. The police pursued the fugitives. Although unarmed the prisoners are alleged to have attacked the police, who were armed with rifles, revolvers, daggers, and batons, injuring one in the face. The prisoners were promptly shot. Kattnew would have been an important witness in the charge of high treason against Thaelmann. The newspapers print varying accounts of the incident, but none explains why unarmed fugitives interrupted their flight to attack armed police with their bare hands.