Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1934. WILHELM AND OTTO

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 23, 27 January 1934, Page 10

Evening Post. SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 1934. WILHELM AND OTTO

A neat coincidence brought us on Saturday last a report from Berlin that "the Nazis intend to adopt measures to suppress monarchist propaganda" and the prophecy of the "Daily Express's" special correspondent at Vienna that "Austria will he compelled before the end of the year to restore the Habsburg monarchy." If the menace of Hitlerism was to be. averted, Dr. Dollfuss had no option, in his opinion, but "to call on Prince Otto to unite all Nationalists in one cause." The contrast supplied a dramatic illustration of die great gulf that Nazi arrogance has fixed between two countries which had been closely united by the ties of blood arid policy in a formal alliance for1 more than thirty years before the War, which went into the War together, and which after their defeat were regarded by the victorious Powers as such natural and dangerous allies that their reunion was forbidden by the peace treaties; Such was Austria's loyalty to Germany that when, on the cessation of hostilities, the AustroHungarian monarchy fell to pieces, the name chosen for- the Republic that was proclaimed in the old State of Austria was "German Austria," and it was only the veto of the Allies that cut the epithet out. Till a year ago the "Anschluss"— the union with >Germany—was just as ardently desired on the Austrian side as on the other. The aggressive insolence of the Nazis has now converted Germany's best friend into a determined enemy, and, if the Allies had allowed the name of "German: Austria" to stand, the Austrians themselves would doubtless have removed the hated epithet by this time. > , The contrast in the attitudes of Germany * and Austria to the monarchy is perhaps- more picturesque than-significant, yet it has its lesson. The Russian Bolsheviks murdered their monarch, the Italian Fascists reduced theirs to a dummy, but the German revolutionaries were saved the necessity of choice when their, Kaiser resigned and ran away. From his seclusion at Doom, however, he has always let his late subjects know that," though he had run away, it was in the hope of living.to reign another day. While the Republic lasted the ex-Kaiser's frequent expressions of this hope were regarded as so many threats to the liberties of Germany, but when the Republic was overthrown he knew' that his hour had come.., In his eagerness he ■ may even be ' said to have "beaten the pistol," for when Hcrr Hitler was first called to power a pathetic picture, was sent us from Amsterdam,of the exile of Doom waiting with his luggage packed to book his passage to Berlin when the new Chancellor said the word. But the new Chancellor did not say the word. He fobbed the great man off with the pretext that "his immediate return might disrupt the election." The Hohenzollern family had to be represented by its small fry in the limelight and the hysteria of the Maikowski funeral, and, after the election had been won, in that glorious ceremony in the Garrison Church at Potsdam which celebrated the restoration of Prussian tyranny and its intensification to a degree that dwarfed the proudest achievements of the Hohenzollerns. <

But even after, with the aid of the Reichstag fire, Herr Hitler had become the unchallenged master, of Germany, the exile of Doom did not, get his invitation, and perhaps with; good reason. younger members' of his family had been licking the, boots of the Nazi tyrant with a mag-i nificent enthusiasm, but he may well have doubted whether their father, who for years had received the same compliment himself, would be equally'adept in paying it. Thereturn of the ex-Kaiser which once ap^ peared to threaten German liberty might now be a threat to German despotism. "Only, One is master in I the country. That man am I. Who' opposes Me I shall crush to pieces.", That was the way in which Wilhelm II was accustomed to speak to his subjects. Adolf I might talk in the same way with a much nearer approach to literal accuracy, and he may think that a man swho once thought, and talked in that way, even lif his performance was less valiant, |is safer in Doom than in Potsdam. Determined to "bear like the -Turk, no brother near the throne," the uncrowned King of Germany will put his foot down on all monarchist propaganda. Dr. Dollfuss, on the other hand, lacks both of Herr Hitler's grounds for objecting to monarchist propaganda. He has no ambition for absolute power himself, being a dictator,

one might say, by. compulsion, and having associates in the office. Nor has he any reason to fear any of the Habsburgs, as Heir Hitler may fear one of the Hohenzollerns. What Dr. Dollfuss would like to do is to broaden the basis of his administration and to reduce his own unconstitutional responsibilities. That his thoughts have lately been turning in the direction indicated by the "Daily (Express" correspondent is proved by the fears of his opponents. Shortly after the compromise with ttfe Fascists which resulted in the reconstruction of the Dollfuss Government, the Socialists of Vienna declared (September 28) < .

that they would call a general strike if the Government attempted to establish a Commissioner at the Town Hall, to1 proclaim a new Constitution without consulting the people, or to restore the Habsburgs.' ■ The' restoration of the Habsburgs may therefore be regarded as in the serious contemplation both of Dr. Dollfuss's "Patriotic Front" and of its opponents.

But it seems clear that no opponent of Dr. Dollfuss has any more solid ground for objecting to any individual Habsburg than he has himself. No surviving member of that family was ever the centre of a nation's hopes and fears, or has had the limelight playing upon him either before the War or since. Everybody has heard of the exile of Doom, but outside of the countries immediately concerned how many people have heard of the exile of Steenockerzeele? The place is indeed as difficult to find on most maps as its name is difficult to pronounce. Steenockerzeele is a Belgian town within a few miles of Brussels, so close that on any ordinary map the interval would be indistinguishable, and it is now the home of the exiled Habsburgs. The leading figures are the ex-Empress Zita, the widow of Charles IV, the last of the Emperors of Austria and Kings of Hungary, and his eldest son, the Archduke Otto. It was there on November 20, 1930, which was the Archduke's eighteenth birthday, that in the presence of a small assembly of Austrian and Hungarian loyalists he was proclaimed the heir to the Hungarian TKrone.. Europe was not shaken by the news, and in Budapest the enthusiasm of a few supporters iis said to have been "quenched by a deluge of stink bombs." If Hungary is not eager to have him, Otto may be glad to take Austria on instead.