COMMUNISTS IN AUSTRIA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25308, 7 October 1947, Page 7

COMMUNISTS IN AUSTRIA

PLANS FOR UPRISING

GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL’S STATEMENT

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, October fl. PJans had been discovered for a Communist coup d’etat in Austria, said Mr Ferdinand Graf, Secretary to the Austrian Ministry of the Interior. “Within the next few weeks, Austria will be the scene of Communist plot attempts. The gallows at Sofia, where Mr Petkov was hanged, show the beginning of an all-out drive of Communist aggression.” The Austrian Foreign Minister (Dr. KarJ Gruber) said yesterday: “It is a fundamental interest of Austria that the neighbouring States, especially the Soviet Union, should not support Communist aggression in the internal politics of our State.”

The first sharp cold spell in Austria. combined with lack of food and clothing, the withdrawal of the Allied occupation troops, and the failure of the Treaty Commission to reach agreement over the country’s future, have increased political tension and industrial unrest,” says’ the Vienna correspondent of “The Times,”

“Miners and steel workers in the British zone have started a series of strikes, the Chamber of Agriculture h?s asked for a one-third increase in food prices, the Trades Union Federation has passed a resolutlbn pointing out that the recent wage increase has already been outstripped by the rising cost of living, and an underground organisation calling itself the ‘Monarchist Partisans’ has distributed leaflets in the British zone urging the return of ‘Emperor Otto’.’*