CAUSE OF PEACE

Evening Post, Issue 11, 13 July 1936, Page 9

CAUSE OF PEACE

FRIENDLY ACCORD

AUSTRIA DECRIES EXTREMISM

(Received July 13, 11 a.m:)

LONDON, July 12.

At Berlin Dr. Goebbels spoke for three minutes, prefixing his reading of the communique .with the remark that the agreement represents a further practical step towards the peaceful lessening of tension and the disentanglement of the European situation. At Vienna Dr. Schuschnigg declared that the agreement ensured European peace, adding: "Fate binds both of the German peoples together. Everyone, no matter what his former attitude was, will welcome co-operation in the Fatherland Front. I can confidently state that Austria's peaceful development will continue. Despite all that has happened, the old Austro-German cultural relations are strong enough to enable us to come to a friendly agreement with Germany. I greet all Germans inside and outside our frontiers." Dr. Schuschnigg added that he had nothing to say altering1 the conception of the former Chancellor, Dr. Dolfuss. Austrians, while German people, were not a German nation. The Government was determined to defend its independence with all possible means. "There can be no place in Austria for Nazism or other extremists sowing discord and hate, who will also be proceeded against relentlessly. Austria, as a member of the League, will fulfil all her obligations." AUSTRIAN COUNCIL OF STATE. A law is to be promulgated immediately forbidding propaganda in favour of an Anschluss (Customs union). The Austrian Government does not intend to adopt the Nazi programme, for instance, in regard to. anti-semitism. The Press says that Germany can now be sure of Italian support against any attempt to isolate her. The President, Herr Miklas, has accepted a suggestion by Dr. Schuschnigg and appointed a Council of State composed of "national-minded" men, including Herr Horstenau and Herr Guido Schmidt. Herr Horstenau, director of the Austrian war archives, is outspokenly proGerman and is regarded as the" confidential representative of the German Government in the Austrian Cabinet. Herr Schmidt, who is also pro-German, and hitherto a high official of the Chancellery, has now been promoted to the Secretaryship of Foreign Affairs. In pursuance of a reported agreement, the Ministry will include a representative approved by Germany.