The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY'MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1938. Germany Moves Eastward

Southland Times, Issue 23437, 18 February 1938, Page 4

The Southland Times PUBLISHED EVERY'MORNING “LUCEO NON URO” FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1938. Germany Moves Eastward

Austria has been a debatable land in the politics of Central Europe for so long that it is hard to believe the Cabinet reconstruction reported in cable m ® s ~ sages yesterday is virtually the end of Austrian independence. Yet nothing less than this can be inferred from the facts now suddenly presented to the world. Herr Hitler summoned the Austrian Chancellor to Berchtesgaden, in Bavaria; and there was an interview at which there seems to have been some tablethumping, presumably by the Fuhrer. What emerged from these talks has been described as an ultimatum, and although Wedcable messages carried the suggestion that Dr Schuschnigg would not agree to the inclusion of Nazis in the Austrian Cabinet, there can no longer be any - doubt that Herr Hitler s orders have been obeyed. Five Nazis have been included in the. new Ministry, and Herr Hitler has had his way over Dr von Seyse Inquart, who is to be Home Minister, and will have control of the police. This appointment, and that of Professor Adamovic as Minister of Justice, will facilitate the granting of an amnesty to Austrian Nazis now serving prison sentences. The remaining demands have probably received a general, if grudging; acceptance. Some of them are going to be hard to carry out; others —notably the prohibition of newspaper reports unfavourable to Germany will be merely a change of direction in a dictatorship which already exists. But Herr Miklas and Dr Schuschnigg were not over-estimating the seriousness of the position when they “realized that to give way was tantamount to a surrender of Austrian independence.” After five years of propaganda and diplomatic pressure, interrupted by the premature/putsch that resulted in the death of Dr Dollfuss, Herr Hitler seems to have achieved the aim which he announced on the first page of his book, “Mein Kampf . “German-Austria must come back to the great German motherland,” he wrote, “and not because of economic reasons. No! No! Even if the union of the two were economically .... harmful it still must v take place. People of the same blood belong in the same Reich.” A certain air of anti-climax hangs over the agreement. It has come unexpectedly, after one of those periods of deceptive calm during which Austria has had almost no place in the news. The Manchester Guardian, which is well-informed in German politics, printed a message from a diplomatic correspondent in December, hinting that “the Austrian question is described as ‘near’ by those of the German National Socialist party who are chiefly concerned with it.” The correspondent stated, however, that there was no intention in Berlin ‘to encourage the Austrian Nazis in the use of violent methods.” Apparently there was to have been an intensification of propaganda and a strengthening of the underground organization of the Nazis. No one seemed to suspect that a decisive movement was so close at hand. “It is too early to judge whether the renewed effort Germany has begun to make in Austria has any chance of success,” wrote the correspondent. “So far the chances would seem to be rather small.” , Now that the decisive attempt 'has come, accompanied by nothing more violent than a rumour of troop movements on the frontier and some table-banging by Herr Hitler, it is interesting to consider the position in its wider relations. Above all, it is pertinent to ask why Signor Mussolini no longer announces himself as the protector of Austrian independence. There are two answers to this question, and it is probably the first that is most important. Austrian “friendship” for Italy has had its basis mainly in economic arrangements summarized under the Rome Pact of 1934. The terms of the pact guaranteed an improved market in Hungary for Austrian manufactured goods, resulting from Italy’s undertaking to buy a specific quantity of cereals from Hungary. This three-cornered arrangement allowed Italy to pay subsidies in both countries and to gain an increasing influence along the Danube. Unfortunately its value depended on the soundness of Italian finances. At the present time they are anything but sound, and Italy is no longer in the position to follow a trade policy that was really nothing more than an inexpensive way of gaining political influence. The Austrians are therefore not as friendly towards Italy as they might have been a year or two ago, and the appeal of Dr Schuschnigg to Signor Mussolini could safely be described as the gesture of a regime, and not of the people. Viennese workers have made their protest against being “sold to the Nazis”; but it is probably true that the pro-German element in Austria, is now large)

enough to make possible a first and important step towards Anschluss. Otherwise the thing could scarcely have happened so quietly. The second reason why Signor Mussolini chose to be ski-ing when Dr Schuschnigg asked for him on the telephone is probably psychological. There can be little doubt that the Austro-Ger-man agreement will cause uneasiness in Rome. Beyond the Brenner Pass is the German-speaking South Tyrol, and it is only a few days since the people of Munich were surprised by the appearance of huge posters attacking the Italian administration in that province. This is the kind of thing that does not happen in Germany without the knowledge and approval of the Nazis, and it was described as “the fii'st public criticism of the Italian regime since the establishment of the RomeBerlin axis.” The stability of that axis will now come more closely under question. According to yesterday’s cable messages The Manchester Guardian has accepted the silence of Rome in the present juncture as a proof of Italy’s weakness. A correspondent of The New York Times recently pointed out that Germany seemed to be gaining the upper hand in the Rome-Berlin alliance, .and that Signor Mussolini had returned from his German visit with a new conception of the Reich s strength. “His second thoughts of Hitler are not revealed,” wrote this correspondent, “but he found the Third Reich ‘formidable’ and he keeps referring to the impression it produced ..... Certainly he came back with a new sense of the potentiality of the Third Reich as a friend or—and this is important—as an enemy.” Perhaps it is too late to talk of improved relations between Italy and Britain, even though these countries both have much to lose from the present situation. But it is not too late to talk of Czechoslovakia. In that country there is also a German minority; and Herr Hitler has shown that his dream of pan-Germanism is not to remain too far from the hopes of practical attainment. It may be quite true, as The Times has pointed out, that “no treaty could ever take Austria permanently from the German orbit”, or that, on the other hand, Austria could never become “a convinced and willing partner in a system not her own.” But the point lives in the methods by which the present results have been attained. No mild acceptance of Germany’s dominance ban alter the fact that it represents, as The Daily Telegraph puts it, “the old method of the mailed fist.” Today it has appeared on the borders of Austria. Where will it be tomorrow?