ACT OF SABOTAGE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 11

ACT OF SABOTAGE

AUSTRIAN CABLES CUT NAZI TERRORISTS BLAMED WHOLESALE ARRESTS MADE HOLIDAY PASSES QUIETLY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received June 1(>, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, June 1G Ujo Vienna correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says an act of sabotage, attributed to Nazi terrorists, was committed on Wednesday night. Acting with expert knowledge the perpetrators chose a spot on a little used road, dug down and severed the underground telephone and telegraph cables connecting Austria with neighbouring countries. Thirty-four telephone call-boxes also were wrecked. It is announced that 1170 Austrian Nazi leaders have been arrested, including 087 State officials, 52 State teachers, IJ7 officers oi the gendarmerie, 61 railway officials, 81 Mayors, and 37 lawyers,and judges. I* ifteen German agents have been deported. r lhe citizens of Vienna were relieved that the Corpus JChristi holiday passed without incident. Fearing a Nazi demonstration hundreds of plain-clothes policemen mingled with the crowds. Their officers, for the first time since the war, wore the old Imperial uniforms in preference to tho German field-grey uniforms. it "Recent cablegrams to the Literary Digest from the Vienna press show a reluctance to discuss the friction between Austria and Germany, but they reveal a firm conviction for Austrian independence. The most outspoken organ, perhaps, is the Catholic lleiclispost. Referring to political prisoners, who then numbered more than 500 Austrian Nazis and Socialists, seized for demonstrating against the parade of 40,000 of the Fascist Heimwehr, which was given as a symbol of support of the Dollfuss Government, this newspaper said: "The Government's political opponents arrested during the recent disturbances have been treated most humanely in prison. Assertions to the contrary are absolutely false. "Concerning Austria's fate, nobody has a right to decide that except the Austrians themselves. We wish a sovereign and free Austria which may fulfil peacefully its Germanic mission in Central Europe. Any one who holds the idea that Austria's future can be dictated from Berlin should recall Dr. Dollfuss' recent speech at Salzburg: 'Austria a colony? Never! 1 Any one who seeks to ridicule Austria's wartime uniforms shows a moron spirit and must be pitied and despised." The allusion to the Austrian uniform arose from the fact that for the first time since 1918 the uniform of the old Austrian Army was worn officially on May 14, when Dr. Dollfuss appeared in his wartime outfit as an officer of the Imperial Jaeger Regiment. He took the salute at the parade of the 40,000 Heimwehr troops above mentioned, which gathered from all parts of the country to show their loyalty to him and to demonstrate for Austrian independence and against union with Germ any. The great fear of the Dollfuss Government and its allies, it is said, is that Nazi dominance in Austria would bring about a union of Austria and Germany in what some call "its most sinister and most difficult form."