Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-31
BY FRANK II. SIMONDS.

r T is typical OF the complexities OF
cotemporary Europe, which must
bewilder and not little anger
the American observer, that a riot
| In Vienna should carry alarm to
all the capitals of the older continent
Yesterday the dispute between Alba
MIA and Jugoslavia over the treat
ment OF a Serbian attache at Tirana
| recalled all the evil memories Of Sara.
jevo. Today the Austrian ARRAY has
started apprehensions which are
hardly less colossal.
The reason for the present anxiety
is, of course, twOfold. Socialists in
arms at Vienna serve naturally to
rouse all the late fear of Bolshevism,
which has been fairly we'll started by
the recent Anglo.Russian troubles
But while the shadow of the Soviets
Is patent, there is not less obvious the
eternal dread OF Anschluss-that is, of
the union of the Germans of Austria
with the mass of their race brethren
in the Reich.
And 1t is at least interesting that
this new Austrian trouble comedies
with an outburst of discussion of the
Austro-German union which has dis.
turbed Paris and Rome and not less
gravely excited the nerves of the
states of the little entente. For sew
eral months Europe has been talking
OF the growing certainty of this resto-
ration of the older German empire
and not few close watchers have af-
firmed that this union was not only
inevitable but immediate.
Would Dislocate System.
But the attempt to unite Austria
and Germany now could not fail to
dislocate the whole European system
as created after the war. To appre-
ciate the significance it is essential to
look for a moment at the map of Eu-
rope. Were Austria joined to Ger
many. Czechoslovakia would be prac-
tlcally isolated from western Europe
and with its formidable German mi
norities become a practical enclave in
the territory of Germany. It's eco
Inomic independence would be abolished
and it's political freedom at least men,
aced seriously.
In tho same fashion, the arrival of
Germany at the submits Of the east
ern Alps would give a new trend to
the controversy over the German
minorities of the southern Tyrol an
nexed by Italy after the war. Nor is
it without meaning for Italians that
while the discussion of Anschuss was
proceeding before the Viennese riots
| pau bCSdI III TcpEdl tic
mystic phrase Hamburg to Trieste,
the Baltic to the Adriatic." For once
Germany had come south to Vienna
and the Bremen. the impulse to press
on to the southern sea would be
patent.
Moreover. with the German frontier
carried south to join the Hungarian,
all the old possibilities of a German
Magyar alliance would be renewed.
The Hungarians, never reconciled to
the destruction of their country by
the Treaty Of the Trianen, have stead
lily looked east, west and south for an
ally to help them restore the unity of
the kingdom of st. Stephen. But this
carries immediate peril to all the ma
tons of the little entente-Czecho-
| sloVakla threatened with development,
Rumanian unity menaced by Hunga.
rian aspirations. southern Slav in
tegrlty threatened by similar danger.
Anxiety in Paris.
Finally. looking to Paris, one sees
every evidence of anxiety. Were Ger
many to absorb the Republic of Aus
tria, nearly 100000 people and more
| than 10000 square miles would be
| added to the possessions of the heredi-
| tary enemy, the losses OF the war
would be made up, and the old night
mare OF German Mitteleuropa would
| appear in a new and still more dam
| gerous form
! Yet in the face of all these obvious
dangers, what is Europe to do? All
| the efforts of the allies and the League
OF Nations to make a viable state out
of the Austrian fragment have failed,
for two reasons. First, there is no
| economic existence discoverable for a
state one-third of whose people live
| in city which owed it's size and
| prosperity to its position as a capital
of an empire of $4,000 900 inhabitants.
To have restricted Austria to the
scant area Of a slightly expanded
| Switzerland has been to deal a fatal
olow to the ancient prosperity Of the
| country.
| This consequence of war might still
nave been in part amended had it not
been for the peculiar character of the
Austrians themselves. Here and here
| alone IN Europe is a people without
| anything which might compare with
the patriotism, the particuIarism of
every other race and fragment from
| FINLAND to Catalonia. The Austrian
has no pride as such. politically speak
ing, now that his country has been cut
| 10 nothing. He is not interested in
| independence, he is not nationally
minded. He has been the master of
| half of a great empire with A tradi-
ton OF European greatness. But for
the existence cut out for him in
Paris, he has no enthusiasm
Since you have thus disposed of
my property and my existence" so the |
Austrian addresses his conquerors. |
1T is for you to find a. way for me to |
| live. You have forced this condition |
| upon me. find ne the means of liv- |
ing" This is briefly the Austrian
| thesis.
1t would be a mistake to assume, as |
many do, that there is an intense de- |
sire for union with Germany, the sort |
OF racial craving for union which has |
| been disclosed in so many peoples in |
the past century. The Austrian is not |
eager and emotionally excited about |
Anschluss. He does not like the Prus- |
slams and he is even a little jealous |
of the Bavarians. He regards the
North German as uncivilized, while, |
unlike the Bavarians, who are over
whelminsly monarchist in sympathy, |
there is no royalist sentiment in Aus |
tria.
Dislike German Rule.
Again, union with Germany means |
the subordination of Vienna to Berlin |
and of all Austrian business to Ger |
man. There is a profound conscious. |
ness in Vienna that German rule !
would mean the destruction of the old, |
charming, quite southern spirit and |
the substitution of a new commercial |
and industrial conception. Vienna is
an ancient capital with very great (
traditions, proud memories and many |
beauties. Berlin is a pushing. modern |