Evening star., 1938-02-17
A Blue Danube.


Chancellor Hitler will be able to chant
when he addresses his Charley Mccarthy
Reichstag on Sunday, for der Fuehrer
has just won perhaps the greatest triumph
OF his meteoric career. The Nazis have
taken Austria. In all but name, Anschluss
that union of the decrepit remnant of
the dual monarchy with Germany, which
Europe, through the League, successfully
opposed even when projected in mere
zollverein-has now been achieved. For
all practical purposes, Hitler is today as
effectually the dictator of his native land
as of the Reich. 1t is not without reason
that the Nazi press at Berlin jubilates
over the "indestructible unity of the Ger
man people," though its claim that 1t
represents Joint Austro-German con-
tribution to the"peace of Central Europe"
is far less justifiable grandiloquence.
Thus, another of the cardinal Nazi
detectives foreshadowed in "Mein Kampf"
Is realized. One more nail is driven in
the coffin of the Treaty of Versailles.
Abolition of reparations, restoration of
the Saar, rearmament, remilitarization
Of the Rhineland, suppression of Judaism.
re-elevation of Germany to the level of
q great power, now the bloodless annexa-
ton of Austrian effect, if not in form.
1t is no mean record of accomplishment
in the five years of totalitarian tyranny
on the Spree.
When Hitler harangues his puppet
Parliament on February 20, he is ex-
pected to depict events at Vienna as
statesmanlike gesture by Chancellor
Schuschnigg in the name of Austro-
German "paci1cation." Those events in
fact denote abject capitulation to Nazi-
ism. That Dollfuss successor surrendered
at the pistols mouth is not to be doubted
He apparently had the alternative OF
bloodshed and invasion by German
divisions modified on the Bavarian-
Austrian border following last weeks
so-called peace conference" at Berchtes-
gaden.
At any rate, the Viennese government
caved in on Tuesday. It yielded to q
Berlin ultimatum by appointing pro-
Nad ministers to control the police,
foreign affairs and administration of
justice. Coincident to the cabinet shake
up, measures were drafted for economic
and military cooperation between the
two states as well as for parallel gov
ernment policies at home and abroad.
To all effective intents, Austria's inde-
pendence has vanished. She becomes
as much Nazi province as once
sovereign Bavaria Saxony and Prussia.
The German Reich acquires $4,000 square
miles of territory and 100000 additional
population, while Nazi military and
political power extends its tentacles,
pincer-like, around menaced Czechoslo-
vakia, and to the borders of Italy,
Yugoslavia and Hungary. Germany
marches in seven-league boots toward
her long cherished mastery of Central
Europe.
Berlin reports that the Austrian coup
was executed with the joint blessing of
Mussolini and Great Britain. If that is
"a. and there is ground to fear 1t is, the
question arises as to the price Hitler paid
for II Duce's support and John Bulls
connivance. Certainly, Italy requires
substantial compensation for the fact
that Berlin is now in position to dominate
the military situation at the Brenner
Pass, across which, under Fascist
sovereignty, lives a populous and restless
German minority In the South Tyrol.
Does Rome's complacency in the Nazi
rape OF Austria foreshadow German ac-
quiescence in Mussolinis designs for
agrandizement in the Near East and
North Africa? Has Albion made a per-
fldious deal with Hitler, a la the Hoare-
Laval conspiracy to hand over Ethiopia
to Italy, whereby Britain shuts her eyes
to the conquest of Austria, in return for
German pledges not to push too hard.
or too soon, for return of colonies2
Hitler may or may not on Sunday spill
all and sundry Of these beans. Whether
he takes the world behind the scenes, or
sugarcoats their true inwardness, it is
ominously apparent that there has been
dirty work at Europe's crossroads. It
must be a very blue Danube that now
flows past the once proud capital Of the
Hapsburgs.