AUSTRIAN COUP

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 242, 13 October 1936, Page 7

AUSTRIAN COUP

STARHEMBERG STILL IN COUNTRY MEETING OF HEIMWEHR — (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) Received Oct. 12, 7.25 p.m. LONDON, Oct. 12. The Daily Telegraph’s Vienna correspondent says that the reports that Prince Starhemberg has left Austria are unfounded. He spent the weekend at one of his 13 castles in the country. He has summoned a meeting of the Heimwehr leaders for Monday. The dissolution of Prince Starhemberg’s Fascist Heimwehr, its incor- I poration in the State militia, and the ; virtual dictatorship of the Federal j Chancellor, Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg, | based on the standing army, were mo- [ mentous results of an all-night Cabinet meeting which lasted till 7 a.m, stated a message from Vienna on Sunday. Dr. Schuschnigg’s own private army was similarly disbandea and merged in the Patriotic Front militia. Two Heimwehr Ministers, Herr Baarenfels and Dr. Ludwig Draxler, resigned, but were persuaded to remain in the Cabinet, which is now required to take an oath of loyalty to Dr. Schuschnigg. This means the elimination of Prince Starhemberg as a factor in political affairs. Prince Starhemberg has stood at the head of the Heimwehr, a private army that had its beginnings among the retainers on his own estate ana which backed the Government. The prince is regarded as the servant ot Mussolini in the Austrian State. Last April a crisis developed between Prince Starhemberg and Dr. Schuschnigg. the Chancellor. The prince then dared the Chancellor to dissolve the Heimwehr and threatened that this would be done “only over my dean body.” He asserted that if his foes pressed him too hard there would be a repetition of the events of 1934, when the Heimweh?? smashed the Socialist organisations. This challenge was met by the re-arming of Austria, which was at first seen as an internal measure. The re-introduction of the conscription plan meant that the Chancellor could create his own forces to back his minority Government against Nazi and possibly Socialistic assaults in the future. Tne policy then laid down was to admit only loyal men to the new militia ana thus create a social difference between ‘reliables” and “unreliables.” This plan has been followed by Hungary for some time past. According to G. E. R. Gedye, correspondent oi the London Daily Telegraph and New York Times, “Mussolini secretly armed and financed the Heimwehr and persuaded Dr. Dollfuss to crush the Socialists rather than seek an alliance with them agairfst the Nazis. Mussolini then advised the conscription of the Austrian workers, with or without arms, in the hope of withdrawing them at a critical stage from the big underground Left movement.” Six months ago there was a tense situation as the result of the discovery that the Austrian Phoenix Lite insurance Company had bribed leading members of the Heimwehr and the Chancellor’s Storm Troops. The Cabinet was reconstructed in May, Starhemberg being dropped from the post of Vice-Chancellor and going to Rome “to visit a football match” immediately afterwards. In the same month it was reported that the disbandment of the Heimwehr had begun. Later the Heimwehr embarked on a policy of arming to the teeth, but there arrived, also, the new understanding with Germany, with a promise of an amnesty for the Nazis. Within the last few days an internal struggle in the .Heimwehr has resulted in the expulsion of both Starhemberg and Major Fey, a well-known figure, by different meetings of the body.