Evening star., 1935-10-29
A Starhemberg King.

DictatorShips are proverbially hungry
for augmented power. They mount to
one autocratic eminence, only to plot
new realms of conquest. until all the
functions of the State are concentrated
in the person who has contrived to vault
into the seat of supreme authority. From
Vienna come tidings that some such
trends are manifeSting themselves in
Austria. Earlier this month Prince
Ernst Won Starhemberg engineered
coup d'etat which left him the virtual
dictator of the republic which is the
emaciated remnant of the ancient HapS-
burg empire. With the rank Of vice
chancellor, the soldier -aristocrat as
sumed the commandership in chief of
the countrys military forces and clothed
himself with control of the government,
for all practical purposes.
Elevation of Prince Starhemberg to the
regency of Austria, with the possibility
that soon thereafter he might be pro-
claimed king, is the plan now said to be
taking shape. 1t has its handspring in
the Home Guard. the organization which
is in effect the national army and
acknowledges the prince as it's indisput-
able master. The prince, avowed ad-
herent of the Fascist school and apostle
of the MuSSolini idea of government, has
not publicly revealed his attitude toward
the regency-king project, but does not
conceal his purpose to develop Fascist
ideas with greater vigor." Italy is just
celebrating the thirteenth anniversary of
the vigorous application of those
ideas" under II Duce October, 1895,
may come to be as momentous in
Austrian history as October, 1922, is
destined to be in the annals of Italy.
The Viennese dictators supporters are
propagating the theory that Starhem-
berg royal house would be preferable to
restoration of the Hapsburgs, from many
points of view. The princes family, for
one thing, claims to be older than the
Hapsburg line. For another, young
Archduke Otto, pretender to his ances-
tral throne, is credited with desiring to
rule over democratic kingdom. Such a
regime, the Starhembergites insist, is re-
pulsive to the Fascist spirit of the new
Austria, which their liege lord persona
f1es. The Little Entente states, too,
which wrested extensive domain from
the defunct dual monarchy, are hostile to
Hapsburg rehabilitation. AS the final
argument in favor of entrusting the
nations destinies to crowned Starhem-
berg is the princes achievement in pre-
serving Austria from the Nazi threat,
just as his forbears in ancient times
heroically safeguarded it from foreign
subjugation.
The young prince has made no secret
OF his desire for ultimate re-establiSh-
ment of a monarchy, but has never COM
mitted himself to Otto's cause He has
just publicly declared that he knows his
goal" Current developments would in
dicate that the goal is throne. Because
Of his personal and political identif1ca-
ton with MuSsolini, the day may dawn
when II Duce will look upon Starhem-
berg king as Fascism's satrap on the
Danube. That would represent an ex-
tension of the Roman Empire even more
glorious than the absorption of Ethiopia
With George of Greece preparing to re-
don the ernine at Athens and Star
hemberg dynasty in the making in Aus
tria, the king business" is enjoying a
Fall boom.