AUSTRIA’S NEW CONSTITUTION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3463, 31 March 1930, Page 2

AUSTRIA’S NEW CONSTITUTION.

REFORM NOT REACTIONARY

A CHANCELLOR’S RENUNCIATION'

“There can be no freedom without law, and no law without order,” said Herr Johannes Schober, the new Chancellor of the Austrian Republic, when asked for his views on the proposed amendment to the Austrian Constitution. “The Constitution reform is free from reactionary tendencies,” he declared emphatically. “J am aware that the bill lor the revision of the Constitution is regarded m certain quarters as a retrograde measure tending to restrict in many ways the liberty of the subject. 1 have seen such statements in the press. But my conscince is clear in this respect. lam not a reactionary. lam not an enemy of progress. 1 have never been a party politician ; I have been a Civil servant. “Since the beginning of my career i have always considered that the main duty of Government must be to provide safety or security for the citizen. My work‘as a Civil servant, and the experience 1 have gained in the Police Department instilled into me the prin ciples of order, law, and liberty. “Therefore, I can hardly draft a new Constitution in which the fulfilment of this primary duty of ethe State would be overlooked. That does not mean—as a critic has stated —that the new Constitution will make of Austria-, a police State. The Austrian police has no dictatorial ambitions, it does not need any other laws than those which will enable it to carry out its duty, and it does not know of any duty whicli would favor one political party to the detri input of others. I will not say that it does not discriminate between friends and foes, but the distinction it makes is between friends and foes of law <U»d order.

•‘All the provisions in the proposed Constitutional reform have been inspired by one lofty idea : That all possibilities of friction between parties and classes, between majorities and minoritiesj as well as between Government and people, lie eliminated. “Our experience during the last nine years has proved that the present Constitution of Austria had been the main cause 1 of many misgivings and misunderstandings which in turn had given ris c to conflicts, strife and even hatred. It has been directly responsible for the unsettled state of internal affairs, because it thwarted our best endeavors towards stability and hampered our economic development. Good economics must be backed by sound politics. “My aim is to end the' follies of the Parliament and fulfil the will of the people. It is of paramount importance that our economic organisation be freed from its inner shackles in order to prepare the entry into Parliament of a true democracy. “Only when we have shown that law and order reign supreme in <jur country, can wo expect foreign powers to ease the economic burdens imposed on Austria.

“I believe in the future of Austria, which is a land of the free and will ever remain so.