TRIAL IN AUSTRIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LV, Issue 81, 4 March 1935, Page 7

TRIAL IN AUSTRIA.

HERR RINTELEN CHARGED. A STAUNCH DEFENCE. VIENNA, March 2. The trial of Herr Rintelen, the former diplomat, before a military Court has commenced. Extraordinary precautions are being taken to prevent a disturbance. Soldiers with steel helmets, fixed bayonets, and gas masks are on duty in the session hall and others are patrolling the corridors.

The Public Prosecutor demanded imprisonment. Horr Rintelen pleaded not guilty; he looked very weak. Three doctors are present during the whole trial to watch his condition.

Herr Rintelen. limped slightly, his right arm was in a sling, and his eyes, formerly alert, were dulled. Convulsive movements of his mouth betrayed his nervousness. His memory was also affected.

The principal Judge warned Herr Rintelen that he had freedom to speak, but must not abuse the right. It was essential that important political questions bo treated in the calmest manner to prevent his health suffering, thus necessitating the abandonment of the trial.

The charges included that Herr Rintelen had allegedly confessed to receiving on July 25 a Nazi courier who told him to proceed to the Chancellery; also that earlier trials had revealed that Herr Rintelen would hand over power to the Nazis. Dr. Frida, one of the Judges, made an effort tliroughout the day to secure Herr Rintelen’s conviction for treason on the grounds of ambition and jealousy of Dr. Dollfuss, also foreknowledge of the Nazi putsch while the family friends were mostly Nazis. Herr Rintelen staunchly defended himself and denied jealousy or personal differences with Dr. Dollfuss. He declared that Dr. Dollfuss authorised him secretly to negotiate with the Nazis to effect a settlement, but he had not succeeded because the Government refused to accede to the Nazis’ demand for an election. He denied an unusually close association with the German Minister at Rome. On the contrary, 'he saw the British Ambassador more often.

The hearing was adjourned after six hours owing to Herr Rintelen’s exhaustion. It is expected that the trial will reveal happenings hitherto obscure.

Herr Anton Rintelen, then Austrian Minister at Rome, was arrested after the Nazi rising in July that resulted in the death of Dr. Dollfuss. On the day of the revolt Nazis shot their way into the Vienna wireless station and forced the announcer to state that Herr Rintelen was forming a Cabinet. Herr Rintelen, who was stated to be a known friend of the Nazis, was arrested. It was also stated that a search of his belongings had revealed a list of members of a new Cabinet headed by

himself.

DEATH SENTENCES.

VIENNA, March 3. Seventeen Nazis were sentenced to death at'Salzburg for smuggling explosives in July.