Evening star., 1933-07-16
DOLLFUSS PLAYS DAVID
TO REICH'S NAX GOLIATH
Austria's little Napoleon" Won Marked
Success at Parley Despite Hurried
Call Home.
BY c. PATRICK THOMPSON.

"A USlOLc Lying UdNh W NlCllIId W
4 \ deal with a Nazi rising which
menaced his regime, he had the
same outstanding personal success that
Venizelos had in Paris. and Balfour in
Washington. He was the personality
hit of the opening of the conference.
The fact is all the more remarkable
IN that there is only about as much OF
Engelbert Dollfuss as there is of Aus
tria Both are very small. Dollfuss,
broad -browed, gray-eyed. brown haired,
with shy manner. but lions heart,
is only SO inches high and 40 years
old. But what yearS-and what inches !
A quick worker Dollfuss. Up to March
he was virtually unknown outside of
his own little state. But suddenly he
appeared on the European map as a
miniature Metternich. He started in
to save his country from civil war, and
went on to SINCE Hitler'S muStache and
expel German Nazi ministers, to en-
chant MuSSolini and charm support
and some millions of dollars out of
him. to oblige the French bitterly to
agree to contribute to an international
loan for his government. Then he laid
the foundations of a new Fascist state,
kindled in Austria the longlost Nation
alism, which last f1ared up when the
Tyrolese mountaineerS faced Napoleon S
armies. and flew to London with the
avowed object of battling at the Eco
nomic Conference for deal which
would secure Austria'S political and eco
nomic independence by making her self
supporting.
One might disSertate at length on the
qualities which have caused the shadow
of DollfuSs to sprawl so large over Eu-
rope. But the whole essence of the
man and his featS is best illustrated
by a bird 'S-eye view of a small cliff.
which is almost lost like Dollfuss at
the London conference) amid the enor-
nous mass of the surrounding noun
tains of the Italian Alps. 1t looks in
significant in that vast tumble of peaks
and valleys but it is the key to a whole
strategic line. and as such was fercely
attacked and as stubbornly defended
over long and grim period of the Al
pine war Survivors CT that bloody
fighting sometimes make pilgrimages
thither. as BritiSherS go to YpreS and
Frenchmen to Verdun. And if you go
up there it will be pointed out by the
name it earned for itself
1t is called Dollfuss Cliff. Heroes
who give their names to such spots
usually leave their bones there. But
this one is an exception. He has a
nack of fighting, winning-and sur
viving. He did great deeds with his
machine guns up on that cliff.
Appears Formidable.
I thought Of him in that role when
I saw him in the entrance hall of the
Geological Museum in London Bruce,
the big Australian. had just shaken
hands with him. "Merci. so pleased" !"
murmured Dollfuss, and when he bowed
his head nearly butted the big mans
hip. But through the motions the lit
tie man remained as formidable look
ing as polite bull terrier which WagS
its tail And later when the 600 dele
gates dined together in the ice rink
of Grosvenor House, l thought that
Dollfuss, the machine-gun commander.
was not so remote from Dollfuss, the
chancellor, as one might suppose.
Cordell Hull was speaking In his
hiah-pitched Staccato voice. noddlng
his head and emphasizing words with
movements of a clinched fist. Baldwin
smoked his pipe and listened Daladier,
swarthy, sturdy, Napoleonic. Socialist
but the strongest war minister France
has had in years, lighted cigarette.
Up in the balcony the wives Of the del
egates twittered and peered. And little
Dollfuss, most honorably placed be-
tween the tall British foreign secretary.
Simon. and the rugged domlnlons secre-
tary Jim Thomas. sat very still, With
little fixed smile on his firm, humorous
mouth. his wide-set eyes quietly flicker
ing from face to face while the lean
American Grated on in tongue lncom-
prehensible to him.
He looked across at Schacht, with his
tight, fattish pince-nez'd face of
banker, and at the WalruS-hke Hugen-
berg. and on to Litvinoff; and his eyes
flickered down from the Russians full
moon smile to his well-fllled waistcoat
It may have been the flicker of the little
mans eyes, something in the way the
solid head turned on the bull-terrier
through my mind that he was reflect
ing that these might be fine fellows,
representatives of big and daunting
states. but they looked very soft and
easy to beat in any physical combat
A man of the good earth and the
hills, is DollfuSS. If you motor so miles
out of Vienna and take narrow wind
ing road into the foothills of Lower
Austria. you will come upon a little viii
lage Here, one day in the Fall OF
1892. a young peasant woman came in
from the family pocket of earth and lay
down on a bed And a little later the
baby who was subsequently christened
Engelbert set up his first baWl. The
mother still tends the family patch of
soil and has not discarded her peasant
head shawl Her son, now famous and
powerful, could relieve her of her toll
and take her to Vienna But what
would she do in grand city? And how
would she pass her time so far from the
little farm and the crops? She stays.
The psychology of inches has yet to
be authoritatively investigated. How
far we're Caesar, Napoleon and Lloyd
George not to mention that dwarf
Hohenzollern who first won a crown
for his family. influenced in their for
NATIVE years by an inferiority complex
which urged them to work and fight
without ceasing in order to prove them
selves as good as. if not better than
their larger fellows? We do not know,
But in the case of DollfuSs we have it
on record. from those who knew him as
a boy that the other village boys jeered
at him because of his size. and that he
fought them ferociously and forced them
to respect him with fists, elbows, knees
and maybe teeth. too.
Worked Hard at School.
He worked harder than any of them
In the village school. and made such an
impression at the district school by his
quickness. courage, industry and char
acter that he won a scholarship which
took him first to the University at
Vienna to study law, and then on to
Berlin University to study the rela-
lively new science of economics
He was a student, aged %, when war
broke out His knowledge of the Tyro-
lese hills proved valuable: his upbring-
ing among them undoubtedly saved his
Nfe He knew the hills like the back
of his hand-the shelters. the tricks of
visibility. the weather vagaries; and he
oriJa ND
80 hit. His feats belong to the history
Of a Tyrolese regiment, which is proud
Of him and his decorations for bravery
The end of the war found him first
lieutenant-which means more in the
imperial army Of the Hapsburgs (hav-
ing regard to his humble BIRTH than 1t
does in the democratic armies Of Amer