AUSTRIAN PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 105, 31 October 1933, Page 9

AUSTRIAN PROBLEM

CAN DOLLFUSS STAND?

THE THREAT OF THE NAZIS

POSSIBLE WAYS OUT

For resolving the difficult questiou whether Dr. Dollfuss is gaining or losing ground in his struggle to prevent Austria from being submerged in the Nazi flood, ja touch-stone has been provided by the recent six days' Catholic and patriotic demonstrations in Vienna, writes G. E. It. Gedye in the London "Daily Telegraph."

On May 7, Dr. Dollfuss held a very similar demonstration of Heiniwehr, who after parading in the grounds of Schoenbrunu Palace, marched into the heart of Vienna, and defiled before the Chancellor on the Bingstrassc. On that occasion1 the Heiniwehr—mostly peasant, youths —went through a terrible ordeal. Along the whole three miles of the march they wore greeted by the derisive jeering of a hostile crowd. Their route was thickly "strewn1 with paper swastikas. Handfuls of swastikas were flung in their faces as they marched, and their tunics at several points were bespattered with rotten eggs, the music of their bands drowned by the singing of the. Horst Wessol song (the Nazis' anthem) and the German, National Anthem.. Only for a 'few hundred yards on either side of the saluting base was their reception a friendly one. Now Dr. Dollfuss has succeeded in holding similar demonstrations, which lasted nearly a week, and the Austrian Nazis have hardly dared to utter a protest. It would be quite wrong to interpret this as meaning that the many thousands who demonstrated against wliat'the Germans call "the Dollfuss system" four months ago are now.prepared to acquiesce in it.

A REASON,

It is, true, further, that there, is a special reason why Nazi headquarters in Germany may have issued orders for their Austrian friends to keep quiet on this oecalsion. Austrian Catholics know that there is great bitterness among German Catholics—especially in Bavaria —at having been. prevented by Herr Hitler from attending the Vienna German Catholic Congress, to which they had been looking forward for over _ a year. It would thus have been a dangerous move for the Nazis to have stirred.up religious feeling by disturbing this Congress, and probably a guarantee that this would not occur accompanied the recent ratification in Eome •of the Concordat with Germany.

At the same time there •wore a number of demonstrations of the Patriotic Front which the Nazis might have disturbed without, incurring the charge of having upset a religious ceremony. The fact that they no longer feel themselves free to set at-defiance the police,_ the Government, and the "black Fascist" Heimwchr, as they did four months ago, must bo taken as a sign of'pro1 gress of the Dollfuss Cabinet. In the absence of political and Press liberty in Austria, this is the only definite clue to the".actual situation. The confidence of the Austrian Nazis that the apparent strengthening of the Government's position is so ephemeral that within a few months the Dollfuss'Cabinet will have collapsed is genuine and unshaken. They point out with some forco that the tactical advantage of the aggressive spirit is on their side, and that a prolonged defence against an untiring enemy'is likely to wear down the bravest defenders. They also point with .justice to the serious divisions of opinion within the Dollfuss camp.

WANT A DICTATOR.

The Heimwehr, headed by Prince Starhomberg and the Minister for Security, Fey, demand an immediate and "full-blooded" Fascist dictatorship, which is clearly further than Br. Dollfuss is prepared to go at this moment. The Minister of War (Herr Vaugoin) and the Clericals are jealous of the growing influence of the Heimwehr in the Cabinet. Price Starhemberg and other Heimwehr leaders arc clearly more co'ncerncd; to 'execute a war dance on tho prostrate body of Austrian Democracy and Socialism than to fight to a finish with their Nazi opponents, . whoso anti-Semitism they openly share, and-with whom many of the Heimwehr were in the same "antiMarxist^ camp a few months, ago. Tho Heimwehr leaders, refused to come to terms, as Dr. Dollfuss desires they should, with Herr Winkler, the Vice-Chancellor, and other leaders of the "National ' Corporative Front," composed mainly .of the non-Clerical peasants of the Landbund, and those of the former Pan-Germans who have not openly joined the Nazis. The continuance of the support of the Corporative Front, hwoever, is vital to the existence of the Dollfuss Government:

The Nazi1 danger is greatest in various parts of. tho provinces. Naturally the' Nazis are very, strong all along the German frontier ,in Tyrol, Salzburg, and to a lessor extent in the Upper Austria. Dr. Dollfuss is strongest in Vienna and Lower Austria.

Styria is practically a Nazi stronghold.' Herr Pfrimer, who headed the abortive Heimwehr Putsch of 1929 and went .unpunished, long ago led the Styrian Heimwehr into the Nazi camp, as a result of which' they have ibeen suppressed by Dr. Dollfuss,, exactly as wero the Nazis. A reliable informant from Styria told mo that in a score of Styrian villages you can go to the local inn and find workers and peasants singing the Hoist Wessel song, while the local gendarme joins in the refrain. In Carinthia, toe, there have been "many scandalous cases, of Government officials, even in high positions, steadily sabotaging the policy of the Government.

DISLOYAL OFFICIALS.

The Nazis assure one that they are1 still gaining ground, despite repressive measures.

This, they assert, is because- the countryside feels that Dr. Dollfuss has no constructive economic policy, and is bringing Austria under the'protectorate of an alien race —the Italians —in" order to keep them apart from their German brothers. >

One of tho great difficulties with which Dr. Dollfuss has to contend is that, despite the thousands of dismissals and arrests of disloyal omcials,_ tho Civil Service and tho gendarmerie are still honeycombed with Nazi adherents, especially among the higher ranks, who consider that it is they who are loyal to the ideal of a united German race, which they accuse Dr. Dollfuss of betraying. Another obstacle is tho lack of a slogan to capture the imagination of youth in tho towns. The appeal to Catholic sentiment is proving successful enough among the peasantry, but among the urban population the crusading fervour of the Nazis, their doctrine of a great self-sacrificing Teutonic brotherhood, fires the imagination and stiffens tho determination of the young. Tho kernel of Dr. Dollfuss's problem is that he is engaged in the task of trying to cast out the devil by Beolzsbub—a brown Fascist by a black. His strong arm —tho Heimwehr —have sinco 1920 known one foe only—the Social Democrats, with whom they usually coupled the Jews. Compelled to rely on the Heimwehr from the start, Dr. Dollfuss was precluded from raising the banner of demo-

era tic liberty and proclaiming Austria the centre of German freedom, where the spirit of democracy would be preserved against all assaults and from which it, would one day issue forth to liborate the German people from a tyranncial dictatorship. All ' his appeals in the name of '' liberty,'' in consequence, lose much of their force while he is compelled by his allies (and the greater part of his own Clerical party) to deny all liberty to 40 per ccntl of the Austrian and 67-per cent, of the Vienna population—the Social Democratic electors.

'All advances from the Social Democrats have been rejected, although their acceptance would mean raising the strength of the anti-Nazi front from about one-third to over two-thirds of the. population. '

FEAES OF INVASION.

No doubt it is considered that in the event of a Nazi uprising or an invasion by the "Austrian Legion," who to the number of between two and eight thousand (which is still'increasing) are being given intensive military training in Germany, the workers would automatically choose the lesser evil and come to the support of tho Heimwehr. Unfortunately such action, amidst the confusion of actual conflict, would be of little avail, compared to what might hsjve been done if the splendidly organised machine of the Austrian Socialist Party, were placed at the service of Dr. Dollfuss in advance.

Eecently, when the danger of * invasion was felt to bo particularly acute, there wore oven conversations concerning possible local co-operation in a certain frontier district. , Heimwehr headquarters in Vienna promptly forbade their continuance. -

That the fears of invasion are no idle ones is proved by tho.recent, transfer of Italian motor troops from Verona to Bozon, whence they could be in , the streets of Innsbruck within six hours. 'No one;in Austria is under any illusion that a Nazi invasion or rising would fail to cause an immediate occupation of Western Austria by the Italians, with tho probability of simultaneous action by Czechoslovakia and perhaps Hungary and Yugoslavia. Fortunately these fears are now far less acute.

So far Dr. Dollfuss can be congratulated on having done much better than anyone thought possible in the spring. The.question whether his position will prove tenable over a long period is still an open one. The general feeling is that in-thc long run ho will bo forced either to form a reactionary nationalist coalition, with a purged Austrian Nazi party which will be content to work for the Nazi ideals within an independent Austria, or to yield to tho pressure of Prince Stariiembcrg for 100 per cent. Fascism on Italian lines; or (and only deadly peril from Germany could lead him to adopt this solution) to accept the proffered support of tho . Social Democrats. ~.-■•