NEW AUSTRIAN DECREE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21647, 13 November 1933, Page 11

NEW AUSTRIAN DECREE

DEATH PENALTY RESTORED MURDER OF A SOLDIER COMPANION WOUNDED BAVARIAN FRONTIER CLOSED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received November 12. 5.5 p.m.) VIENNA, Nov. 11 The Austrian Government has decreed the reintroduction of the death penalty, through court-martial, for murder, arson and serious disturbances. The decree, however, does not mean universal martial law. The step is deemed necessary as Parliament is not sitting. There is to be no celebration of the Republic's anniversary, which will coincide with the German elections tomorrow, necessitating greater powers to deal with a possible contingency. Following upon the reintroduction of the death penalty a hangman has been appointed and a gallows Erected in the courtyard of the chief prison in Vienna, where the last execution was carried out in 1908. It is announced that the first victims will be the murderers of Eduard King, a member of the Heimwehr —who was shot at midnight—if they are discovered. King was patrolling with an associate named Klagian when bombs were thrown at the house of the Burgomaster. King interrogated the occupants of a motor-car, who killed him and wounded Klagian and decamped into Germany. Several arrests have been made in the neighbourhood of Lochau. The Austrians have closed tho Bavarian frontier, announcing that Germans going homo to-morrow must prove they are voters.