NEW AUSTRIAN PLAN.

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 17877, 25 November 1929, Page 7

NEW AUSTRIAN PLAN.

REVERTS TO EMPIRE. SOCIALISTS ASSAIL DRAFT. (From a Correspondent.) VIENNA, October 19. A study of the draft of the proposed new constitution reveals it as a more drastio measure than it first appeared to be, as it calls upon Austria to turn her back on many of the changes instituted at the time of the revolution. The Socialists regard as a significant move the deletion from the constitution, of the republican law abolishing the title of nobility and orders of knighthood of the Hapsburg dynasty, together with a law establishing a coat of arms of the republic. Although allowed to remain for the mome-nt on the statute books as simple laws, they be repealed Immediately by a majority vote, and it is clear that the aim is to reintroduce the old titles. \ Would End Jury Trials. Of more real importance .s the abolition of trial by jury in favour of trial by judges with two lay advisers, gTeat extension of the powers of the police who, when disorders arise, would even have the power to make regulations which would have the force of law, disobedience of which would be punishable. The police also would get the .right to censor cinema and theatre productions. If the government proclaimed a state emergency, it would have the right to censor or even entirely suppress newspapers. Representatives of the Federal States are no„ pleased at the centralising tendency of the new Constitution.

The strongest criticism, not only of Socialists but also of moderate Democrats and even some Conservative circles, is reserved for the revival of the old imperial “ Paragraph 14” in much sharper form. The Ilapsburgs thereby were enabled when Parliament was not sitting to rule by decree.

This right would be extended to enable the President to issue decrees with the force of law, even when Parliament was sitting, if it failed to pass bills with th expedition desired by the President. A provision whereby the Government, would lie enabled to dispense with Parliamentary sanction for the budget also is criticised. The anti-Socialist press, while generally supporting Johann Schober as having at. least furnished a basis for negotiations, expresses concern over many items of the new draft of the Constitution. Socialists, as was to be expected, are furious, declaring “ This bill never will become law.”

See Police Dictatorship Plan

They describe it as a plan for a veiled “ police dictatorship which destroys even the progress made by bourgeois liberalism in 1867,” and term it more reactionary than monarchy. They summon its sponsor.; to appeal immediately to the country to ascertain whether the new elections will give them the two-thirds majority required to pass the bill. " The draft isn’t worth the paper on which it is written,” they assert. The Heimwehr press, on the other hand, describes it as the last respite accorded to Parliament, hinting that the alternative to passing it is a fullblooded Fascist dictatorship. The Heimwehr organ, the Wiener Journal, publishes an official Heimwehr communique referring to recent alarms started by the Socialists to the effect that if the Heimwehr plans a march through Vienna on October 27 it must realise bloodshed will ensue. The march will not now take place, however, as the police have refused to sanction it. The Heimwehr de- j dares that any foreigner who sent such reports abroad is guilty of high treason to Austria. “ Over the frontiers with them,” concludes the communique verdict, which the Wiener Journal heartily supports.