The Next Steps That is clearly only a beginning. It
constitutes the first instalment of " reforms " undertaken under the shadow of an ultimatum with a time limit. Nothing could be more significant than the fact that the new Minister of the Interior, Dr. von Seyss-Inquart, was summoned to Berlin within :14 hours of his appointment, and left for that city on Wednes- Jay night: He is ostensibly called thither for consultation ; .hat, in such circumstances, plainly means orders. A German economic mission has already reached Vienna and Field-Marshal Goering is expected there next month to discuss military co-operation. These events are open to no possible misinterpretation. In the words of Herr von Papen, the retiring German Ambassador in Vienna, "an independent Austria can only find its mission within the framework of Pan-German development." Austria is there- fore summarily forced within the framework and permitted as an empty courtesy to call herself still independent. Against voluntary union between Germany and Austria no reasonable person in Western Europe could utter a word of protest. But this union, the extent of which is not to be predicted yet, has no element of the voluntary about it. It has been forced on a majority of the Austrian people under a threat of invasion. Dr. Schuschnigg is said to have asked Britain and France whether he could expect military help from them if he resisted. He could not. What has happened could not justify a European war. But it has not made the danger of a European war more remote. The best that can be said is that is has not brought it nearer.
