STRIKE OVER IN AUSTRIA

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24866, 4 May 1946, Page 7

STRIKE OVER IN AUSTRIA

FUTURE OF SOUTH TYROL

DEMONSTRATION AT INNSBRUCK <Rec. 11 p.m.) , LONDON, May 2. _ The general strike throughout the Tyrol lasted until noon, says the Vienna correspondent of the ‘Daily Telegraph." Demonstrators at Innsbruck demanded that the Foreign Minister, Dr. Gruber, go to Paris immediately and explain Austria’s position to the Foreign Ministers’ conference. The Tyrolese Provincial Government resigned in protest against the Paris decision, but was eventually persuaded by the authorities in Vienna to withdraw its resignation. “It is idle to pretend that the Austrians are not bitterly disappointed at the manner in which the demand was refused,’’ adds the correspondent “They feel, particularly, that the decision is contrary to assurances given in the Atlantic Charter about the rights of minorities and the principle of self-determination. The Prime Minister (Dr. Renner) said that even if the uncertain unofficial messages so far received had caused consternation throughout Austria “no Austrian is ready to assume that the Paris conference has simply sanctioned the pact between Hitler and Mussolini. I must point out in connexion with the proposed frontier rectifications that Austria’s intentions were never merely to regain territory but to repair the grave injustice Of 1919 and alter a measure which is absurd from a European standpoint. 1 ’ An earlier message said that the Austrian government had announced that a general strike had been called in the North Tyrol, and there had been rioting and clashes between Tyroleans and Italian police in the South Tyrol as a result of the Bit Four Foreign Ministers’ rejection of the Austrian plea for the incorporation of the South Tyrol into the Austrian Republic. The Austrian Government stated that the strike was not started by, the Government or municipal authorities, but as a result of the “spontaneous reaction against the perpetuation of Nazi treason in the South Tyrol." The British News Service in Germany quotes the Austrian Chancellor as saying: “The rejection of Austria’s claim to the South Tyrol by the Faris conference will not prevent the Austrian Government maintaining its rlnim with ffreatw enerstv.”

claim with even greater energy.