WILL THE HAPSBURGS RULE AUSTRIA AGAIN?

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 141, 17 June 1936, Page 20

WILL THE HAPSBURGS RULE AUSTRIA AGAIN?

'J'ORN BY DISSENT, and menaced by

Tho Royal couple were imprisoned, and narrowly escaped the fate of tho Russian Czarist family. The Little Entente wished to send them to St. Helena. But tho British Government intervened, and took them on a British monitor to Funchal, in Madeira. Here, four months later, in poverty and despair, tho Emperor died. People remembered tho long shadow of tragedy that for centuries had fallen across tho Habsburgs. They recalled tlio unhappy death of Joseph 11., son of Maria Theresa, and tho mysterious disappearance of the Archduke John Salvator, who sailed for America iu liis own yacht in tho nineties,

German Nazism, Austria may find a new unity under the rulo of a Habsburg. Thero aro rumours of a militaristic coup that will place the 23-year-old Archduke Franz Joseph Otto on tho thone of his fathers, says tho Sydney “Daily Telegraph.’ ’ Will this thronelcss descendant of a thou-sand-year-old dynasty escape the curse that seems to havo dogged tho House qf Habsburg since its inception? His childhood and his adolescence were marked by disaster. When he was aged 12 months liis great-uncle, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was assassinated at Sarajevo by a bullet that plunged the world into war. He was a youngster of five when his father, the Emperor Karl, signed his namo to a document that ended tho Habsburg monarchy. “Now as ever, filled with unalterable affection for all my peoples, I will not let myself bo a hindrance to their free development,” wrote Karl. “Tho people, through their representatives, havo taken over the Government. I renounco all part in conducting tho business of tho State,” The next night, Armistice Night, 1918, two motor cars with drawn blinds, passed through tho great gato of the Imperial Schonbrun, taking the last of the Habsburgs to their refuge in Switzerland. A great Empire lay prostrate, awaiting the cynical dismemberment of Versailles. And a great family, whose story for 10 centuries had been part of Europe’s history, was in exile. • Twice Karl left his sordid Swiss home in. a hopeless attempt to recover his throne. Early ,in 1921 he was smuggled over the Swiss frontier disguised as his own gardener, and travelled third-class

THE CURSE THAT WORKED After tho unsuccessful Hungarian revolution against the Habsburgs in 1849, the leaders of the revolt were executed, among who was the innocont Hungarian Premier Batthyauy. When the Premier’s mother heard of this she cursed the Emperor with what became known as the Habsburg curse, “That ho and his kin should ho forever smitten.” His son committed suicide —His wife was murdered—His brother executed—Another brother was killed—One sister-in-law burned to death—Another became insane—His niece perished in a fire—His nephew was accidentally killed—Another nephew was drowned— Still another was murdered at Sarajevo, causing tho great war, during which the Emperor himself died as his Empire crumbled. —Robert Riply in “The Sunday Express,” London.

to Vienna ,and so to his rormcr palaco in Budapest. Here, inspired it is said by M. Briand, who was spinning a tortuous web of intrigue against Soviet Russia, Karl demanded of tlio Regent, Admiral Horthy, tjiat power bo handod over to him. The Regent dismissed him and Karl retired ingloriously. Later in tho same year the ex-Emperor made another ineffectual attempt. Accompanied by Queen Zita, ho landed by aeroplane in Hungary and called upon the garrison at Sopron to join him. Appointing a Government of his own, ho marched on Budapest, where ho was routed in a comic-opera engagement with a force led, appropriately enough, by tho brother of the comic-opera composer, Franz Lchar.

Throneless Descendant of a Thousand-year-old Dynasty May Once More Preside Over Viennese Court.

and was never heard of again. They recalled, too, how old Franz Joseph was knows as tho “Emperor of Sorrows,” how his wife, tho Empress Elizabeth, his younger brother, Maxmilian, Emperor of Mexico, and his nephew, Franz Ferdinand, heir to tlio throne, had been murdered, and how his only son, the Crown Prince Otto, had taken liis own life. From the day when the unhappy Emperor Karl died in Madeira his widow, Zita, had but one purposo in life, to prepare her young son Otto, then nine years old, to rulo in a new Habsburg monarchy. Sho is a woman of consuming ambition, with all tlio prido and resourcefulness oi tho Bourbons, from whom sho is descended. Her dream of a Habsburg enthroned again in tho pomp and brilliance of a Viennese court was a bravo and fantastic defonco against the dark days of 1922. To-day it is a dream that seems about to como true. The restoration of tho Habsburgs may bo tho next pattern to emerge from Europe’s ever-changing kaleidoscope. As a bulwark against the Nazi schcmo of an AustroGorman uuion—prelude io tho fulfilment of tho Rosenberg plan for a pan-Germanic Europe —the return of the young Archduke Otto will havo powerful support from Franco. Sir Austen Chamberlain’s recent mysterious visit ta Vienna suggests that England, too, may be behind his restoration. Tho way is beset with difficulties, however. Austria’s internal dissent is too wide to bo bridged by a revival of Monarchist fervour.

She lacks oven tho superficial unity of Germany. Her Nazis and her Social Democrats, smouldering in suppression, will offer powerful and irreconcilable opposition. Mussolini has always been ■uneasy about young Otto. The Little Entente will not readily accept his return. Magyar nationalism regards its old relations with Austria as tho worst of possible evils. It might accept Otto as King of Hungary, but never as Emperor of Austria. There aro troublous days ahoad for tho handsome young Archduko Otto, heir to a proud title.