NAZIS IN AUSTRIA S

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 110, 5 November 1937, Page 18

NAZIS IN AUSTRIA S

FRESH PROPAGANDA

GOVERNMENT'S ACTIONS

It appears that the Austrian Government is at , present dealing more severely with the Austrian Nazis, who have been greatly encouraged by the lenient treatment of the past months and have rapidly gathered their forces (says the Vienna correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian"), The action against the Nazis now is, directed less by police agents than by .special formations of the Fatherland Front, thus combating the Nazis with the very methods they employ in the Third Reich. : I have, reported demonstrations arranged by groups of the .Fatherland Front against the too prominent/exhibition'of Herr Hitler's "My Struggle" in Graz bookshops. Recently ah excited crowd demanded the withdrawal of this book from one of the leading bookshops of Innsbruck. In Maria Theresa Street the bookseller immediately yielded, but in Eerier Street a bookseller withstood the crowd and was insulted. The bookseller called the police, who restored order, but Hitler's book had to be withdrawn into a less prominent part of the'window. THE NAZIS ATTACKED. In Wels, wher« Nazi demonstrations took place on the occasion of a meeting of Austrian and German war veterafts, the authorities are taking energetic measures. Several Nazis were sentenced ,by the police for painting Swastikas oh the walls or for possessing Nazi propaganda material. Important railway officials in Wels have been excluded from the Fatherland Ftfint because secret leanings to the Nazis were suspected. , : . ■'.;' The Carinthiah authorities closed the Stiegenbrau Inn in Villach, a favourite ■ meeting-place of the Nazis. On August 15 the newly formed Storm Corps (the Austrian counterpart of the S.S. in Germany) placed a wreath on the Fallen Heroes' Monument in Villach. The Nazis stole the wreath and carried it in triumph to their inn, where they were attacked by the Storm Troopers. The Nazis were handed over to the police, and the Storm Corps found that large quantities of propaganda material were stored in the place, including instructions for terroristic acts. TKe Catholic organ "Reichspost,'' writing about the Villach events, said that the incident in this Carinthian town showed that the Storm Troops were filled with the spirit of initiative which was expected from them by the patriotic-population. This spirit,,it said, was a guarantee that within a short tin>e the last centres of disorder would disappear. RESOURCEFUL WORKERS. Nevertheless, the German Nazi propaganda is indefatigable in devising new means of permeating the Austrian people with its ideas. Just recently the Austrian authorities had to cancel an international canoe-race because they learned that, though Poles, Hungarians, atad Czechs were also taking part in the- race,, the.German Nazis intended to. use. the. occasion for largescale demonstrations. along, .the shores of the Danube, Propaganda .journeys,, to Germany are promoted, under, .the ' disguise Of "art excursions.'.'..aad..the GermanAustrian .Volkshuod,. which is one; of the camouflaged organisations working «fbr the. union, of. .the two countries, announced a journey to Munich in the first week of September—that is to say* during the opening weekend of the Nuremberg party meeting. The journey was nominally to visit the German Art and Degenerate Art exhibitions in Munich, bat a stop was made for afternoon tea at Braunau-on-the-Inn,. the birthplace of Herr Hitler, and it was hinted that from Munich a cheap train can .be caught to Nuremberg, stopping at Berchtesgaden, the Fuhrer's country residence. The whole trip cost less than two' pounds in English money. • j