TROUBLE IN AUSTRIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20372, 28 September 1929, Page 11

TROUBLE IN AUSTRIA.

PW CABINET FOBMED. SCHOEBER AS PREMIER. ff\Vo OPPOSING FACTIONS. RIVAL DEMONSTRATIONS. CLASH NOT EXPECTED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. Association—United Servico (Received September 27. M 5 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 2G. The sudden resignation, of tho Austrian Cabinet on tho eve of the meeting of Parliament has created nn exciting situation, ©wing to the increasing tension between tho Heimwehr— otherwise the Fascists—and the Sohutzbund—otherwise the Socialists— which has given rise to reports of sn impending revolution. The coalition parties asked the "Vienna Police Chief, Herr Schoeber, to form a Cabinet, and he agreed, provided that he continued to act as Police Chief.''

Subsequently Herr Schoeber has formed » new Cabinet largely reflecting his own non-party outlook. The Chamber approved of the new Ministry by 84 votes to 69, the Socialists voting with the piinority. The Ministry does not include a single leader of the Heimwehr. This is interpreted as indicating that Herr Schoeber is confident .of his ability to control the Fascist organisation.

Hcrr Schoeber is expected to deal firmly the Heimwehrs, .who havo threatened to march on Vienna on Sunday. The entire Schutzbund has been ordored to mobilise to oppose the demonstration. Both the Heimwehr and the Schutzfcund have armed their members and they ere organised on military lines. Previous efforts to disarm them failed. The latest information is that it is now regarded as certain that the threatened clash betwen Fascists and Socialists on Sunday will be averted.

Herr Johann Schoeber, the Austrian Chief of Police, on two previous occasions has been Premier, namely, in 1921 »nd 1925. He was born in November, 1874, at Perg and studied law and political science at Vienna University, in 1893 he entered tho office of the Vienna polico, and during the war was head of the political section. When the Police President, Geyer, became Minister of the Interior in June, 1918, Herr Schoeber acted as hi 3 deputy. After the collapse of the dual monarchy he was appointed Police Chief on December 6,1918. When the Mayr Government had to resign in June, 1921, in consequence of the determined movement in the Tyrol, Salzburg and Styriiv in favour of union with' Germany, which prejudiced the negotiations with the Allies for credits and the favourable settlement of the West HHngnrian question, Herr Schoeber, on the proposal of the Pan-Germnn People's Party, with the reluctant acquiescence of the Christian Socialists, was asked to form a neutral Cabinet of Officials. The. principal item in his programme was the continuation of the negotiations begun bv his' predecessors with the Kntrnfe Towers for credits for Austria. He was Wc.vftr, unable to secure these._ Moreover the charge was brought against, him that at the Venice Conference in spite oF Arisl-Ha's proved right, to the whole of the Burgcnl.md he had given up the town of Ocdenburg and that in the negotiations with Czecho slovakia he had not adequately upheld the claims of Austria. Jiis Cabinet, therefore, fell on May 21. 1922; the occasion being the demand for a vote to rover a deficit of 120 milliard kronen; it had already resigned in December, 1921. but had eventually remained in office. After this incursion into politics Herr Schoeber resumed his post as Police Chief, in which he proved ,verv efficient.