Dr. Schuschnigg and Italy The hope that Dr. Schuschnigg would
try to increase popular support of his Government by a general amnesty, including both Socialists and Nazis, is to have no early realisation. The mass meeting of the Fatherland Front which the Chancellor addressed outside the Vienna Rathaus on Tuesday had all the pomp, uniforms, illumina- tions, songs, salutes, characteristic of dictatorships. He dmied that any general amnesty was contemplated, and said it must wait till Austria's peace and freedom were secure. It will have to wait a long time, even though Dr. Schuschnigg spoke with great confidence and assurance. His return from Italy was accompanied by the usual rumours which meetings of heads of States give rise to today, of a mutual assistance pact between Germany and Italy, of an.approaching restoration of the Hapsburgs, and of an Eastern Mediterranean pact between Italy, France and Great Britain. There is no good reason why these rumours should be true, and several why they should he false. The mutual assistance pact between Germany and Italy is likely to be blocked by doubts about the Nazis' real intentions regarding Austria ; and a Hapsburg restoration by the determination of the Little Entente to maintain the status quo in Eastern Europe. And, most important, it is impossible fin. Signor Mussolini to come to any final decision on foreign policy till the League of Nations has declared its attitude regarding the future of sanctions.
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