Evening star., 1938-02-25

tinction by the civilized world stop
Timid spirits who need encouragement
are especially deferred by the way
the world treats our affairs stop That
Is why I urgently implore your pub
licist aid for the Austria you love stop
Enlighten your American readers that
Austria's cause is not yet lost, that
while demonstrations in the Nazi camp
are mostly the work of adolescents, on
our side efficient, reliable, mental and
manual workers passionately profess
their faith in Austria and are prepared
for every sacrifice stop All thinking
people realize that customs union,
economic "anschluss' and currency
union with Germany would mean the
end Of our independence and the COL
lapse Of our stable schilling stop All re-
sponsible people resolutely oppose
therefore such harebrained expert
ments which would entail for us the
catastrophe Of Rumania."
Once Believed in Union.
This cable comes from one who for
years believed in, and worked for, the
union Of Austria with Germany, as
myself once believed in it, and may
yet believe again.
was. think, one of the first Jour-
nalists in the United States to protest
that the Wilsonian right OF self-de-
termination for peoples should be ap-
piled to German-Austria, and that
the Austrians should be permitted to
choose for themselves whether they
desired independence or wished to
join their fellow Germans.
1t is ironic that Hitler's Reich should
today be capitalizing upon the bad
conscience created by the outside op-
ponents OF the treaty Of Versailles.
That one should hear. issuing from the
Third Reich, the very arguments that
one made oneself only few years ago,
Why has the author of the above
cable changed his viewpoint? Why
Is ne today prepared to stake his
life and fortune to prevent what only
Few years ago he greatly desired?
Why have I changed by viewpoint?
Because yesterday-until 1933-the
union OF Austria and Germany would
nave been the union of two Christian
nations, pledged to respect treaties.
y eschew aggression, to collabora te
with Europe and the rest of the world.
to respect minorities. to tolerate op-
position, to permit self-government to
Austria, inside any union.
Means Paganism.
Because today, union with Ger
many. moons that Austria becomes
another eau" to be swallowed up
in a totalitarian state. Because it
means a new treaty of Brest Litovsk,
dictated under treat of armed in
tervention. Because 1t means that
over one of the oldest Christian civil
lizations in Europe will fly the Swas-
tlka flag, which not only replaces
the flags of the First and Second
Reichs. but whose whirling cross of
nre, a pagan emblem, Is to replace
the cross of Christ, and embody not
only Germany's imperial aims, but
Germany's God. Because it means
starvation, humiliation and shocking
persecution of all men, women and
children of Jewish blood. Because it
means contemptuous intolerance of
all national and racial minorities not
of German blood-in an area where
every other person is of mixed race.
Because 1t means inclusion in q closed
economic empire, whose every re-
source is bent to perfecting a huge
war machine. Because it means iron
discipline" and blind obedience. i"
Because 1t means the paganizing of
youth. Because it means that Aus