TRIAL FOR TREASON.

Mt Benger Mail, 28 September 1938, Page 1

TRIAL FOR TREASON.

SCHUSCHNIGG CASE. Dr Schuschnigg, tho last Chancellor of Austria, who has been in confinement since Austria was annexed by Germany in March, is to be tried for high treason, wrote the Vienna correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Morning Post on June 30. This announcement was made by Herr Buere, kel, German High Commissioner for Austria. Herr Buerekel also referred to the position of the former Countess 1 Vera Pugger-Czerin, whom Dr ,Schuschnigg is reported to have married by proxy during his imprisonment, and of Baron Louis do Rothschild, who is be- 1 'ing kept in prison on account of the . failure of the Credit Anstalt, of which he was president. Herr Buerekel, who was speaking to journalists, said he had decided, as the representative of tho German Government in Vienna, to bo perfectly frank as far as that is possible for a High Commissioner. Ho answered a hundred questions put to him with hardly any apparent reserve, never pausing a moment in replying and speaking very quickly and vigorously. MARRIAGE UNRECOGNISED. “Schuschnigg is still in Vienna,”^

Herr Buerekel said. “As soon as I heard that ho was receiving visits from the woman Pugger-Czernin at the villa in which he was Imprisoned for some weeks I sent him somewhere else. She is no longer allowed to see him. I do not regard them as married, and German law docs not recognise a marriage by proxy. I am not informed that any such marriage Tias taken place. The woman is living with her father and is free to eat and drink what she likes and live an ordinary life, with certain restrictions. “I cannot disclose whore Schuschnigg is, but he is well looked after. Other people have to be separated from the women they marry or wish to marry. “The fact that Schusuigg cannot bo released,” he said, “is not just because ho is dangerous. People arc not imprisoned because they are dangerous, but on grounds of justice—because they have committed offences. Sehuschnigg has deeply involved himself in the judicial murders in Vienna, and will have to bo tried for his share of them. Questions of guilt are not for foreigners to decide.” As regards the treatment of Jews, Herr Buerekel said: “This is a revolution. The Jews may be glad that it is not of tho French or Russian pattern.

AN ORDER REPUDIATED. “Actually only about 150 people altogether have been sent from Vienna to Dachau concentration camp. Of these about half were Jews. There have been only 3,780 political prisoners m Austria since March 11, including those under protective arrest. Little people Who arc up against big- people are always arrested everywhere, and the Jews are little people. “The Jew must have an overseer. The whole question of the emigration of Jews from Austria is now under discussion.” Asked about the orders sent out on June 21, apparently with his authority for all Jewish employees in Vienna to be dismissed forthwith, Herr Buerckel said that he knew nothing of it at all until two days ago. It was done without his authority. He had seen a printed form containing these instructions, and had repudiated it. An inquiry was being held. Asked about the rumour of a ransom having been asked for Baron Louis do Rothschild, ho replied: “No ransom has been asked for by us for anybody. Louis de Rothschild is in prison in Vienna and all his property is under the control of a commissioner. We regard him as a criminal, and there is no question of releasing him for a consideration. He must receive the pun-

I islnnent lie deserves. It is not simply a question of money.” ' Herr Buerckel said that there had I been disagreements among some of his 1 subordinates, but more of them were I about releases from arrest than about 1 arrests. He could not build up the party in Austria without putting men i from the Reich beside each Austrian I official to work with him. I “HABSBUEGS TRAITORS.” | He had to finish the political and , economic assimilation of Austria in one year. The Austrians would have to learn quickly. His chief subordinates would depart on August 1, and he was himself at all times the supreme authority. The Habsburg property had all been confiscated because they were traitors. All Ilabsburgs were traitors because they had kept Germany and Austria apart for centuries. “The Catholic Church and the Nazi Party are not quarrelling,” he said. “Certain negotiations are going on which I cannot discuss, because it would not be in the interest of the negotiations. There is no reason why the Catholic Church and the Nazi Party should not be in perfect amity.

“ Thank God there has been no war in Czechoslovakia. We do not waut a war. We want to construct.”