AUSTRO-GERMAN UNION.

Evening Star, Issue 19001, 24 July 1925, Page 6

AUSTRO-GERMAN UNION.

From time to time the cables have reported pleas made by German or Austrian parties that Germany and Austria should bo allowed to unite. Their union has been referred to qn occasions as if it wore an inevitable development of the future. No one in the British Empire has trembled at such a prospect, though the idea of such an amalgamation of forces would have moved the strongest resentment in every Allied country if it had been bruited during the first years following the war. The control, which Germany possessed over the policy, and therefore over the armies and resources, of Austria in 1914 and the years which followed was a tragic thing for the world. It is safe to say that there would have been no world war without it, A great deal would require to be forgotten before the Allied countries in Europe could regard with equanimity the prospect of that control being succeeded by a still closer union. The case is somewhat different with Great Britain, further removed from the Powers concerned, and with too many immediate troubles to he greatly worried about those which may seem remote. But the agitation for the political joining of two old enemies in Germany ' and Austria has caused real anxiety to bo felt by Franco and by her allies of the Little Entente. A clause of the Treaty of Versa dies definitely lays down that “ Germany acknowledges and will respect strictly the independence of Austria. . . .

She agrees that this independence shall be inalienable, except with the consent of the League of Nations.” The fear is that this consent will bo accorded if the two countries concerned show themselves sufficiently persistent in their desire to unite.

Tho union might take place, and add little to the strength of Germany for a commencement. The Austro-Hun-garian Empire has disappeared. Austria itself has sunk to such small proportions that it is not the easiest tiling to find it on the map. It has even been urged that its union with Germany would be one of the best safeguards for the peace of Europe, by producing another offset to tho reactionary influence of Prussia in the Reich. The fear of the Little Entente countries, however, is that Austria would soon grow if it wore united to Germany, and grow at their expense. Czecho-Slovakia, Jngo-Slavia, and Rumania have all largo German and Hungarian minorities, whose claims to be united with their fellows in race could hardly bo resisted should the precedent for combination once be set. The Slavs of Southern Europe fear the Teuton. Russia being no longer a friend to be depended on, they have sought a protector in Franco, who in turn bases her main political defence against Germany on the Little Entente, realising tho danger to herself of the reconstruction of a Germnn-Hungarian block in the middle of Europe which would result from a break up of tho Little Entente. Italy has her interest also in opposing tho union of Germany and Austria, as, if that should bo allowed, tho German population of Southern Tyrol would ho encouraged to clamor for reunion with their countrymen. It is the States of the Little Entente, however, which, being wcakmt

than France or Italy, have been most alarmed by tho Austro-German agitation which has increased in recent years. At a recent conference of their statesmen, hold in Bucharest, how to prevent tho dreaded union was tho question most discussed, and a resolution was arrived at that tho best way to go to work would be by reducing Austria’s reasons for desiring it. The movement for union in Austria, a correspondent of ‘ Tho Times ’ has pointed out, has always had economic foundations, and has ebbed and flowed with the prosperity of that country. “ When tho League of Nations came to hor assistance and enabled her to negotiate an international loan, it at once subsided, and it is only because the problem of existence has once again become acute in Vienna that its popularity has revived. The prosperity of Austria, depends entirely on her commercial relations with her neighbors, but the nationalism of tho new Succession States has, so far, made impossible any degree of freedom in trade. Protective tariffs are applied to an extreme degree, with tho result that everybody suffers.” The Governments of tiie Little Entente States are now carefully considering how they can improve the economic position of Austria. There is talk of an “ economic fedcrar tion ” of tho Danube States, and Dr Bones, tho Czccho-Slovakian Foreign Minister, is busying himself with this idea. If the new States will abandon tho extreme policies of Protection which have injured themselves while they have tended to starve Austria, a new impulse may ho given to the prosperity, and so to the contentment, of Europe.