26 FEBRUARY 1937, Page 2

Austria's Patrons The visit of the German Foreign Minister, Baron

von Neurath, to Vienna on Monday and Tuesday was a very qualified success. The " Heil Hitler" demonstrations on the first day annoyed the Austrian Chancellor and can hardly have gratified Rome, while the arrests of a number of Nazis annoyed Baron von Neurath and Berlin. When the distinguished visitor left, the streets were lined with the Government's supporters of the Patriotic Front and the Nazis kept inaudible in the background. A widely circulated rumour of a Four Power Pact between Germany, Italy, Austria and Hungary involving, among other things, Germany's withdrawal of her objections to a Hapsburg restoration in Austria, was immediately denied in Rome, Vienna and Berlin, and there is no reason for attaching any 'credence to it. But there is little doubt that the Hapsburg question was discussed, and that Dr. Schuschnigg insisted with no less emphasis in private than he has always used in public that this was a domestic affair on which Austria could not accept external advice. An official communique announces the appointment of a Cultural Affairs Committee to develop contacts between the two countries—a rather meagre harvest for a visit which has certainly as one of its indirect effects increased opposition in Austria to the Austrian Nazis. Austria is turning more to Italy than to Germany, and her Chancellor is about to visit Rome.

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