THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1938 HITLER AND AUSTRIA

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22962, 14 February 1938, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1938 HITLER AND AUSTRIA

From time to time there is reason to remember the counsel, "When there is political trouble in Europe keep ! your eyes on Austria." Like many another shrewd saying, it has curi rency without bearing any mintstamp attesting its origin, but is acceptable because of its intrinsic value; in recent history it is approved by events. At the present moment it is a useful maxim. Europe is again astir with anxious speculation. This, to outward seeming, arises from Germany, where i Nazi plans are not working smoothly to order. How serious the check actually is cannot be judged in other countries; Nazi pains to hinder journalistic revelation of facts are preventing the spread of reliable knowledge. But there is little room to doubt that a revival of Nazi vigour is the chief factor in such disturbance as is taking place in Germany and extending to agitate adjacent countries. The internal crisis, in so far as it is believed to be real, is arousing these countries to a renewed interest in Herr Hitler's intentions about them. Central among them is Austria, and significance is attached to the forthcoming interview between the Fuehrer and Dr. Schuschnigg, the Austrian Chancellor, who has gone, with Herr von Papen, German Ambassador in Vienna, to Bavaria for what is believed to be a meeting of "momentous importance." This expectation is probably not exaggerated. It would be going too far to say that the alleged bargain Austria is ready to make with Germany is founded on even tentative negotiations, but credence can be reasonably given to the idea that Austria is prepared to give some pledges in return for an assurance that Nazi activities in Austrian territory shall cease. Thdse activities have long been vexatious. More than four years ago—in June of 1933, to be precise—Hitler's plans to extend Nazi control beyond Germany received their first setback at the hands of Austria. This was strangely ominous. Hitler is Austrian by birth; he owes his German citizenship to naturalisation. From the beginning of his political career he has made no secret of his wish to see Germany and Austria reunited in some form of reciprocal arrangement. Annexation of Austria has sometimes been suspected as his eventual purpose, but short of that he has been evidently desirous of proceeding a long way. Fear of incurring Signor Mussolini's displeasure by pressing for political union has played a major part in hindering his endeavours. Mussolini has been frankly opposed to Nazi encroachment on Austria, for the good and sufficient reason that to have a rabidly nationalist State of some 70,000,000 people next doqr would create difficulty in Italy. A large number of Tyrolese Germans, he possibly feared, would be all too willing to gain freedom from the yoke of Italian Fascism by becoming absorbed in their old Fatherland. Lately thisfear has had fresh reference, in a comment indicating its diminution, but the air of Italian confidence was not convincing. This local Italian reaction apart, however, the certainty of Mussolini's objection to any Nazi scheme of control in Austria is as strong as ever. To have a Rome-Berlin axis, necessarily traversing Austria, is all very well as a basis of Italo-German friendship, but should Hitler presume to dominate two-thirds of the length of the axis, that would be a matter for severe objection: the axis can keep its useful character only by Austria's retention of sovereign independence. That there have been, under German Nazi direction, covert and overt assaults upon Austrian independence cannot be honestly denied. In 1933 an Austrian division of Hitler's Nazi Party was unpleasantly active. Although it had an Austrian leader, Dr. Alfred Frauenfeld, it was not an Austrian political party, but one of about thirty divisions of the whole Nazi organisation. Some of these divisions were inclusive of Germans outside the Reich, but they all took instructions from Nazi headquarters in Germany. To what length this particular division* actually went in its deliberate attempt to capture Austria was seen in the first year of its subversive programme. The outcome was a tactical duel between the i Chancellors of the respective countries, Hitler and Dollfuss. Taking a leaf out of his opponent's book, Dollfuss essayed . a t dictatorship. After nearly a year of varying fortunes —at times he was conspicuously successful in rallying his people to the national cause —he was foully murdered, in circumstances plainly implicating Nazi intrigue. The outrage resulted in widespread foreign sympathy with the cause whose leader was thus struck down. There might be—there often were — misgivings about the idea, toyed with by many prominent Austrians, of restoring the Hapsburgs to the old throne, still nominally existent in Hungary and theoretically transferable to Vienna, but to keep Austria on her feet was a constant policy for France, for the Little Entente and for the northern States of the Balkan Alliance. That care for Austria's independence, on her own account and still more on theirs, has never been far away from their diplomatic thinking. Immediately after the Great War, Austria's impending bankruptcy was averted by foreign loans under the auspices of the League. Latterly her plight has been political rather than financial. Her future, and Europe's, is again at stake. What will Herr Hitlor and Dr. Schuschnigg say to 1 each other, and what will be told < the Reichstag at the beginning of next week 1