The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1933. SPREAD OF FASCISM.

Evening Star, Issue 21518, 16 September 1933, Page 12

The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1933. SPREAD OF FASCISM.

Twelve years ago the dread of the world was an extension of Communism. Communism failed to extend to any effectual purpose. It had a brief and brutal hour of control in Hungary; it threatened some of the Baltic States. Since then, so far as it exists as a governing power, it has been confined to Russia, where, properly speaking, it is not Communism that prevails—that will only come, if it ever does, when all the sceptics of Bolshevism have been converted or “ eliminated ” —but the dictatorship of a class. What is extending, very belatedly and in a manner which no one anticipated a year ago, is a kindred system, Fascism, which means the dictatorship of another class. It is eleven years now since Mussolini and his Black Shirts made their march on Rome, and established the ascendancy from which their “ Corporate State ” was to emerge. The pride of the “ Corporate State ” is in. the unity which it establishes, which means simply that all who question the methods of the dominant party are repressed or banished. It appeared for some years as if the world would be content to leave that system to Italy, but this year has seen it established in Germany under Herr Hitler’s regime—a system which is more organised, and therefore has more chance of achieving permanency, than a mere personal dictatorship. There is practically no limit to the domestic power of the Hitlerites. They have made the Reichstag a superfluous assembly. Their opponents of all parties are cither in concentration camps, or fugitives, or cowering with closed lips. And now Austria, to preserve its independence, is to give np its freedom and submit itself to a like Fascist regime.

Dr Dollfuss, who has made this surrender to a mood of the hour, certainly has been hard beset. First descriptions of the Fascist State which he is expected to set up in Austria might be interpreted as an acceptance of Hitlerism. The Chancellor has announced the “ termination of the era of Marxism and Capitalism iu Austria in favour of authoritative leadership on a Christian and guild basis.” Though ho was careful to avoid use of the word “ Fascism,” by which the susceptibilities of France might have been affronted, he announced the “ death of Parliament,” and his model is believed to he the Italian system, which was that of Herr Hitler before him. It is expected that when the Austrian Parliament meets again the delegates will be drawn from a list of candidates prepared by the Government, following the Italian example. In Germany those who oppose the Government are prevented from voting. But the point of this Fascist conversion which makes it the very opposite of a subjection to Hitlerism is plain enough to see. The Nazi Party in Austria is not a separate entity.- It forms part of a pan-Ger-man movement, and its headquarters are in Berlin, From Berlin it takes its orders, and if that condition were continued, and the Austrian Nazis at the same time should become the ruling power in their own country, the Anchluss, or union of the two States desired by Hitler would be realised in fact, however long it might take to be established in name. Austria would be no more than a German colony. Against that Dr Dollfuss has set bis face, but his Nazis apparently have grown too strong to be baulked of their hopes of power. If a Fascist State is what they want he will give them one of their own, independent of Germany, and he will lead it. That may seem a surprising decision, but it makes but a small departure from what his position has always been. The Austrian Chancellor was very much a Dictator while ho opposed the efforts for aggrandisement of the other Dictator, Hitler. Ho could not have opposed them otherwise. With support of the Social Democrats and his own party, the Christian Socialists, he coerced Nazis iu Austria, just as' the neighbouring despotism coerced Social Democrats. There was nothing unnatural to him in that strong line except that he had strange allies. When he first came to office a year ago his support was derived from a Coalition in which the Fascists held a majority of one vote. He himself, it has been said, was “ not averse to Nazi ways. He fulminated against the Social Democrats. Ho insisted that 1 our voters need uniforms, parades, and banners.’ Ho advised the Christian Socialists that ‘ anti-Semitism is a most popular slogan.’ ” Now lie is fulminating once more against the Social Democrats, who have long ruled the city of Vienna, which includes more than one fourth of the population of diminished Austria. There will not be, we can hope, an orgy of anti-Semitism in Austria as across the border, Dr Dollfuss being a loyal subject of the Pope, who lias proclaimed his disapproval of such brutalities. The Nazis have been also inveighing against the Socialists, who are not differentiated from Communists by their extreme opponents, alike in Germany and in Austria. A third Power which threatens to go Fascist is Japan, and that also would mean no great development in her case. For some time past the military have been predominant. Two revolutions have been talked of, a Radical and a Fascist revolution, and the opinion has been expressed that the world will have to wait a long while for Japanese Liberalism to acquire the control of power. The latest change iu the Japanese Ministry is interpreted as a triumph for the plans of General Araki, Minister of War, likely to lead to the abolition of Parliament and the rule of a Council of State controlled by army generals, with a policy of big armaments and aggression abroad. It is not a pleasing prospect. But the Japanese policy in one respect is more moderate than it was expected to be, if, as might be inferred from » recent cable, it demands only a 10-10-7 basis of naval strength, from the expiry of present treaties, for Groat Britain, the United States, and Japan. That was conceded by the

London Treaty, and reports had been that 10-10-10 would bo demanded. The Austrian development also may not come at the worst time, when the Four-Power Pact of Mussolini and security pacts arranged by Russia aro believed to have given a new sense of stability to Central Europe.