AUSTRIA AVERTS PUTSCH?

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22339, 1 March 1938, Page 9

AUSTRIA AVERTS PUTSCH?

TROOPS MOVED FROM VIENNA DR. VON INQUART NAMED AS “FUHRER” NAZI CHALLENGE PERTURBS GOVERNMENT (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received February 28, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, February 28. A serious situation has developed in Graz, capital of Styria, through tbfe Nazis announcing a monster parade of 60,000 for yesterday, with the purpose of demonstrating “against Communism in the Fatherland Front,” says the Vienna correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” The authorities banned the parade, but the Nazis refused to recognise the ban.

The Government, fearing that the police would be unable to hold the demonstrators, concentrated strong parties of troops in Graz, installed field-guns and machine-guns in the main streets, and maintained patrols with bombers and armoured cars. The result was that the Nazis called off the march. The day passed quietly and the troops were withdrawn in the afternoon.

The Nazis deny that they intend a putsch; but Nazis throughout Austria received their leaders’ instructions to demand full political equality under Dr. von Inquart (the proNazi Minister for the Interior) as Fuhrer. Inside the Fatherland Front, in which they form separate groups in defiance of the Government’s arrangements, the Nazis have adopted the slogan: “We fight for a free, independent, Nazi, German Austria.” Meanwhile they are challenging all declarations of the Chancellor (Dr. Schuschnigg). Yesterday’s report of the incident stated that, indicating the state of European nerves, the Austrian authorities rushed mechanised units to Graz from Vienna after a rumour that 40,000 Nazis from the Province of Styria intended to march on Vienna. . The armed forces had occupied all the strategic points round Vienna, over v/hich aeroplanes were circling. Dr. von Inquart was one of the new Ministers included in the Austrian Cabinet on February 17, in response to Herr Hitler’s demands