AUSTRIAN CRISIS

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1928, Page 5

AUSTRIAN CRISIS

PARTIES MOBILISE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright'. VIENNA, October 5. There is to he a great gathering at Wieneraustadt on Sunday next, Oeto-v her 7th, representing a display of strength in which three parties, namely, the Heiniwest (Austrian Fascists), Sehutzbund (the Socialists), and the Government are participating. The town resembles a field ready for battle. T'wepty thousand -Socialists are parading, while an equal number of the Fascists are also parading as a counterdemonstration.

The Fascists are assembling at the opposite end of the. town to the Soc ialists, while between the two parties are the Government forces, of two thousand steel-holme ted soldiers and three thousand ' gendarmes, also Austria’s only motor battery, two horse batteries, and machine guns, in order to prevent a clash. Three hundred extra beds have been provided in the lios pital while thirty stretchers are avail able. The schoolboys of the town have vacated the hoarding school, which will be used as a barracks. All army leave has been stopped. The Socialists intend to prevent the Fascists from making a rumoured inarch on Vienna analogous to “Mussolini’s march on Rome. LONDON, October 5. Downing Street regards the “ L’Echo de Pans” disclosures as being inexplicable. The leakage of information, however, appears to be substantially an accurate summary, but it does not affect the British view regarding the proper time to issue the documents, oyer which the negotiations are still proceeding.

DROP THE WHOLE BARGAIN ! \ LONDON PRESS OPINION. LONDON, Oct. 6. Commenting on the disclosures ol the Anglo-French agreement, the “Daily Telegraph’s” diplomatic observer says: “It will be seen that the French military authorities are also concerned in the discussions, which must have been conducted simultaneously. The most striking teatuie of the correspondence is that the British Government’s acquiescence in the. French standpoint on the question of French military reserve was an integral part of the naval agreement, and was not a separate, independent and unconditional concession. It is gratifying, ih view of this bargain, that there is now no valid reason why the miltary side of the agreement should stand, now that America’s opposition has killed the nayal side.”