Deadlock Over Austria The Austrian Chancellor is a man of
courage. The sudden breakdown last Saturday of the German-Austrian conversa- tions in Vienna was almost as much of a surprise to the rest of the world as it seems to have been to the German Govern- ment. When the German-Austrian compromise agreement was signed just a year ago with the blessing of Signor Mussolini, it was generally anticipated that Austria would definitely enter the German orbit and become less and less capable of resisting German pressure on her policy. This expectation has not been fulfilled. Relations between the two countries during the past year have been correct, and attacks on Germany have for the most part disappeared from the Austrian Press. But Austria has succeeded in retaining her own separate and clearly marked identity. The improvement in her economic position has helped ; and it is mainly owing to this that Dr. Schuschnigg has now felt strong enough to reject the new German demands, which included—if report is correct—the admission of Austrian Nazis to the Austrian Cabinet and an amnesty for all Nazis in Austrian prisons and concentration camps. The mot d'ordre in the German Press has apparently been to make the best of a bad job. Herr von Papen, Herr Hitler's Ambassador in Vienna, has issued a statement in which he declares that " the shaping of the form of the state relationships between Austria and the German Reich may be left to a later time." Few people would care to predict permanency for the present regime in Austria. But not many believed that it would last so long as it has or show so much spirit.
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