AUSTRIA'S CONCERN

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 35, 11 February 1936, Page 10

AUSTRIA'S CONCERN

SECUEITY AGAINST AGGRESSION

STARHEMBERG'S IDEAL

(Received February 11, 2.40 p.m.) LONDON, February 10. Discussing the future of central Europe, Prince Starhemberg, in an exclusive interview with the "Daily Telegraph's" diplomatic correspondent, said that his most serious concern was that the weakening of Italy by the Abyssinian war might disturb the balance of power in Europe. He still feels that the Italian army constitutes the only substantial force to which Austria could look for succour in case of a German attempt to overrun her.

"Austria today," he said, "is content with her present borders. Her people ask only for security against aggression. Our need is for increased confidence among the Danubian peoples so that we may approach the ideal of United States of Central Europe."

"It is for this reason," he said, "that we resist the Nazi theory of 'One race, one fatherland.' That policy would lead to two opposing camps, Pan-Ger-manism versus Pan-Slavism, and result in the destruction of Europe."

Prince Starhemberg denied that the youth of Austria was strongly proNazi, and said that the young and the older people realised that an Austrian could be a good German without being a Nazi. It was only the section between the ages of 26 and 35 who had Nazi sympathies. They acquired those views during the years when the , newly-founded Austrian Republic was unable to supply all their wants.