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The Death of Do'Huss A NATIONAL CALAMITY
THE LATE DR. DOLLFITSS, The
furdered Austrian Chancellor. lllllllllll 1 11111111.
Engelbert Dol'fuss, Austria's little lion-hearted Chancellor. is dead. This five-foot dictator played a losHis ing David to Hitler's Goliath. cocksuredness and inspired determination elbowed a place for Austria on the map of Europe. but his tragic end came from the hands of those firebrands against whom he waged a relentless campaign—the Naz1s---says a "pally News" article on the death or Dr. Dollfuss. France will never have another Napoleon, Austria never another Dollfuss. The tenacity with which he thrust A ustria into the forefront of European politics made him a tremendous influnoe on international relations. It v as in May, 1932, that the Austrian President, Miklas. sent for Dollfuss. and asked him to impossible task take over the almost of forming a Government, That night —the whole of it— he spent in church, in lasting, meditation, and prayer. The next morning he called on the the job, and did President. accepted it. Months later, with the political and eccnomic p^, from had tosition of the country gone worse, the Austrian Parliament, committed suicide by the imp1e procedure of its three Presidents resigning. Thei-e. was nothing in the tion, soConstitution to cover the situaDollfuss. accepting it as a Sign. in. and from then ruled jumped the country without benefit he of P arliament. The success of the National Social s in April Ss ehance. of 1932 gave Dr. Dollfuss The provincial Diets of Vienna, Lower Austria, and Salzburg t returned increased number.i of . Naoional-Sociafists, and this induced the : Position Zre the parties in Parliament to the. dissolution of the House on ground that in its composition it uple(ld not represent public Opinion. The eral Si Chancellor, Dr. Buresch. regned On Mar 6 when the Heimwehr n'ade th • net ,ia coalit7onparticipation in the Cabi• n dependent on a politiwitt.u close the to them em being entrusted f ormation of a Cabinet. On
May 20, -Dr. Dollfuss, who was Minister for Agriculture in the Buresch Cabinet, formed a Government in which, in addition to the ChristianSocialists and members of the Agrari n League, a partison of the Home Defence (Heimwehi) was included. One of the first things the Dollfuss Cabinet did was to approach the League of Nations for a loan. On July 15 the loan was granted by the League Council, and it was for 300,000,000 schillings (a schilling being about 7d. in English money), and Austria engaged to refrain from any measure during the lifetime of the loan (20 years) which might compromise her political or economic independence. Relying on the speedy influx of loan funds, the Austrian Government early last year resumed provisionally the service of the international loans of 1923 and 1930. which had been suspended since June 23, 1932. The internal political situation of the country took on a sharper edge. During the Parliamentary debate concerning a short demonstrative strike ot the railwaymen, the three presidents of the National Council successively resigned. This produced a
situation for which the Constitution • Austria in spite of the strong NaAct had not made provision, there be- tional-Socialist agitation, but the Goving nobody qualified to take the chair ernment, with a view to eliminating in the House. As according to the every. menace to public order, decided C onstitution the meetings of the upon, the dissolution of the Republican House within a given session can be Protection League (the party militia convened or closed by one of the three of the Social-Democrats),, and compresidents only, the Government and pletely prohibited the Nazi movement the parties on which it relies for sup- which caused such an outburst from port took the position that the Na- Herr Hitler, especially in view of the tional Council had become incapable manner in which his special envoy of further action, and that consequent- was treated when he endeavoured to ly the Cabinet had to provide for the place the German Nazi Government Dr. Dollfuss on necessities of the State through legis- case before Austria. this occasion showed the world, and lation by ordinance. Germany in particular, that he would Dr. Dollfuss decided, by virtue of not stand interference by any one, t he powers conferred on the Govern- but he could not do so for ever. ment under a War Emergency Act of The keynote of Dr. Dollfuss' policy 1917, to issue a number of important political and economic decrees, such as was to lay greater stress on the indePress ordinance, reform of juries, shop pendence of 'Austria, and to brook no bloodGerman by legislation. banking, social insurance, interference etc. The Opposition denied the con- brothers. stitutionality of these measures, and He was Chancellor of a country not contended that Parliament was by no means incapacitated for its task, as much larger than Ireland, with a popthe first President, who was the latest ulation of 6,700,000 people, compared to resign, had to fulfil the duties of his with the Austro-Hungarian Empire of Of the present popula• office until he could hand them over 52,000.000. tion no less than 6,500,000 are Gerto a newly elected President. Internal quiet was maintained in mans, and the rest small minorities of other races, such as 60,000 Slovenes, 50.000 Czechs. 40.000 Croatians, and 13.000 Magyars. It will thus be seen that Dr. Dollfuss needed courage of no mean order to stand up and tell Herr Hitler to mind his own business. Austria comprises nine States, or Bundeslander, the most populated area being Vienna, where there are nearly two million people. To arrive at a correct judgment of the difficulties with which Austria has had to contend since the end of the Great War, and which have considerably increased in the last two years, because of the progressive slump of world economy, the position should be considered which existed after the exhausting war and the hunger blockade. What remained after the Treaty of St. Germain as the Republic of Austria (then called German Austria) is but a small remnant of the old monarchy, separated from its most important markets, which presents an unfortunate structure because as a national and economic unit it is limited to a number of mountainous provinces with an unproportionately large capital city.
His Holiness, Pope Pius X.
continuThe Cause of Pope Pius X., "The Children's Friend," is have been completed in the The processes for his Beatification ing. of "Non-Culvarious dioceses, and last month, in Rome, the process The many devotees Rites. of Congregation the by up taken tus" was for the speedy conclusion of of this kindly servant 'of God are playing saintly Pope to the Altars of the Cause. which will raise this great and • the Church
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Austria to-day is landlocked, thus increasing its difficulties for trading. Her immense coalfields are now distributed amongst a- number of nations She herself retaining only about 1 per cent. of the original coal deposits of Austria-Hungary. The manner in which Austria was carved up by the Peace Conference, without thought to its production possibilities and industries, was ceflainly one of the bad blunders of the conference, but , the manner in which the country responded to its dead leader's call for a selfcontained empire is one of the wonders of the modern world. The little Chancellor astonished the world by his defiance of the Nazis and his expulsion of the Nazi Ministers. In a speech which now has tragic significance, Dr. Dolliuss declared: "I have no fear ot the Nazis, either here or in Germany. I shall protect Austria's independence from attacks within the country or without. We desire in Austria only to live in peace and friendship with -Germany, but we shall not suffer any threat to our independence."
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1' A. jAMES, Stock and Share Broker, West Australian Chambers, 104 St. George's Terr. Tel. B2873.
Cables and Telegrams, "INVESTMENTS," Perth
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