AUSTRIA’S AERIAL REARMAMENT

Evening Star, Issue 22514, 5 December 1936, Page 7

AUSTRIA’S AERIAL REARMAMENT

An original method, has been adopted by the Austrian authorities to procure money fdr the partial financing of aerial rearmament.

Posters, containing the signatures of the Minister of War, General Zehner, and of the Federal; Commissar for Propaganda, Colonel Adam, invite the population to give donations for the purposes of aerial rearmament. “ Thus goes the plea,” says the poster, “ to all Federal citizens, without distinction of rank or class, to supplement the sacrifices of the State by voluntary donations, and through such voluntary collection for the army to enable it to be equipped with the most modern weapons. ’ ’ And, again : ‘ ‘ Each penny thus spent will be used for procuring airplanes.” Some of the papers calculate that the cost of a scouting plane would amount to approximately ten thousand pounds, and that of a bomber to twenty thousand. It is recalled that Austria has almost no airplanes, while her neighbour, Czechoslovakia, possesses 2,300.