FREEDOM: A QUESTION FOR FREEMEN!
By means of the simplest kind of plebiscite,, a plain "Yes" or "No," the people of Austria aged over 24 are to say next Sunday whether they stand for, or do not stand for, an independent Austria. Evidently with design, the Chancellor, Dr. Schuschnigg, has allowed but a few days, to elapse 'before the announcement of the vote, and the vole itself. The less the intervening days, the less the canvassing, and the less the intimidation." Also, perhaps, the less the disturbance of , the stock exchanges. What the people of Austria are asked to say is not whether they wish to join Germany, but whether they wish to remain independent; that much is evident from the form of the question now cabled —"Do you stand for a free and independent Austria?" —which is notably different from the question first cabled, in which the words were "a free German Austria." It is true that the Austrian agreement with Herr Hitler in 1936 acknowledged that independent Austria is a German country, but there is no evident need for the word "German" in the question now being put, and the objections to it are, obvious. Governments of countries opposed to Austria's union with Germany cannot say that Dr. Schuschnigg is asking the Austrian 'people to approve it. But if, they vote "No" to the question of Austrian independence they are j voting solidly for Germany; if ,they vote "Yes" they are recording a decision against German reunion. Great international issues hang on this sudden development. It will probably be the most notable plebiscite ' since, that in the Saar. A plebiscitary consultation of the people sets . a new fashion for corporative, semi-Fascist States. Even dictatorships may at times find a popular vote convenient. , h
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1938, Page 8
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295FREEDOM: A QUESTION FOR FREEMEN! Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 58, 10 March 1938, Page 8
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