Evening Post. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1934. DR. DOLLFUSS AND HIS NEW ALLIES

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 46, 23 February 1934, Page 8

Evening Post. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1934. DR. DOLLFUSS AND HIS NEW ALLIES

'• Major Fey, the Austrian Fascist leader, has a high reputation as a soldier and an organiser, but his capacity as a statesman or even as a politician has. yet to be proved. If he fails in either or both of these capacities it will certainly not be for the lack of courage or self-con-fidence. When Dr. Dollfuss was negotiating with the Fascists for the reconstruction of his Ministry, their demands as presented by, Prince Starhemberg were understood to include the formation of "a Corporative State built on Fascist lines" and the appointment of Major Fey as executive Minister at' the head of the army, gendarmerie, and police. But Dr. Dollfuss appeared to have got by far the best of the bargain when the announcement of the new Ministry on September 21 showed that, in addition to the portfolios of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, he had also taken those of Defence and Public Security. As these last two portfolios covered the services of which Major Fey had previously had the non-political head, and of whiclr he had since aspired to have the Ministerial control, and he himself had merely become Vice-Chancellor without portfolio, the ascendancy of Dr. Dollfuss appeared to be complete. That this appearance was merely for the purpose of saving the Chancellor's face was made, to say the least, highly probable by the Vice-Chancellor in the course of the next few days. Addressing a patriotic meeting in Lower Austria oh September 24 Major Fey said that things were not going to become easier for the Government's opponents because he was "no longer directly, in command of the executive forces." As proof of what I say, he added, lot me tell you that only yesterday I signed the now emergency decree, by force- of which wo need not wait until their misdeeds are accomplished before we put persons behind lock and key, but can do so bcforo'if we can assume that their activities are not abovo board. Two days later what -was apparently another decree was published providing for the establishment of "surveillance camps" for "enemies of the State," and it bore the signature not of the Chancellor, but of Major Fey.. Thus within a week after its formation the new Dollfuss Government had taken two leaves out of Herr Hitler's book, and, though both of them related to matters of which Dr. Dollfuss had ostensibly retained the personal control, the voice and the hand were in both cases those of his Fascist ViceChancellor. " ' The subordination of Dr. Dollfuss to his new allies which was thus proclaimed 'at the very outset has culminated in the disastrous warfare which has lost him the sympathy and admiration of. men of all races who had been honouring him as the champion'of freedom, and has' gravely complicated the difficulties of his own country and of many others. What he himself feels about -it, and how ready the Vice-Chancellor is to aggravate those difficulties by his indiscretions is indicated by a vivid touch in - Wednesday's report from Vienna of the funeral honours paid to the 49 "executives"—soldiers and police—killed in last week's fighting. Flowers covered tho steps of the Town Hall, where, a semi-circle of coffins on limbers faced tho building. Cardinal Innitzcr, Dr. Dollfuss, looking old arid ill, Major Fey, and Dr. Schmitz spoke, Fey arousing resentment even among relatives of the victims by declaring that these met their death at the hands.of Bolsheviks. . A soldier-politician who at a Slate funeral. can by entirely superfluous polemics, excite the resentment of.relatives and other mourners who were joining with him in honouring the dead will have to prove himself a very good soldier if Pie is to compensate for - the indiscretions . of- a very bad politician. Major Fey's description of the insurgents 'as "Bolsheviks" is sneer nonsense. It supplies another proof that it is quite possible for a man to see.red without being himself- a Red politician. We cannot recall that,in any of our reports, which are certainly not in T spired by .Red sympathisers, the Bolsheviks have been so much as mentioned, and it has been a matter of surprise that the part attributed to the Communists, perhaps to be regarded as an.alias. for .Bolsheviks, .is insignificant. 'So well behaved had both the Communists and the Socialists'been up to December 23 that a correspondent of the "New Statesman," writing . from Vienna on'that date, was able to say that ."at present no Socialists have been 'detained' and only two" or three Communists." According' to the same correspondent, by far tho greatest danger to tho Socialists is, in fact, tho Federal Government's finanoial offensive against tho Bed Municipality of Vienna. This scorns Teally shameless. . . . Tho position of the Municipality is' appalling. But "Red" here means, as the context shows, Socialist and not Communist. The administration of this "Red" Council was certainly, on the whole, a remarkable success. The Austrian Socialists,' said the "Manchester Guardian," in the extract cabled-on Thursday; week, had-a fine-

record during the fifteen years of their government of Vienna," which they made a model for social services. The worst charge against their administration was its.extravagance—a crime of which even Conservatives and Liberals have occasionally been guilty—but they had certainly made the municipality rich enough to be worth robbing, and that is what, according, to the "New Statesman's" correspondent, the Dollfuss Government was.busily engaged in doing in December. On February 12 the Government was reported to be considering the demand of the Heimwehr (Fascist) leaders for • "the removal of the Socialist Municipal Council of Vienna and the dissolution of the Socialist Party." On that very day the fighting began, and Major Fey declares that the policemen and soldiers who fell in the struggle "met their death at the hands of Bolsheviks"! "All is over except the hangings" is the humane remark attributed to an unnamed Heimwehr leader as he surveyed the ruins in one of the working-class districts of Vienna a week ago. That exception has,' let us hope, been completely disposed'of by this time, but Major Fey suggests that there is something still to come. His speech at the funeral included the warning that the .Government is "ready to use against any "other organisation in any other revolt, no matter whence it comes, the .same force used to suppress the Socialists." It is something that Major Fey now recognises that the Government's opponents' were Socialists and not Bolsheviks, but it is possible that to him it is a distinction without a difference. It is, of course, to the Nazis that his warning is addressed, and the one satisfactory feature of this dreadful business is that, though at the outset they were delighted to see their enemies fighting one another, the Nazis "have been very subdued since the suppression ■of the Socialists." With the help of Italy the Dollfuss Government' may yet win through, and even though that would mean a Fascist .tyranny, it would, at least be better than that the unfortunate little country should be overrun by the Nazis and annexed to Germany.