The New Austria The new Austrian constitution, which was duly
pro- claimed on May Day, after the rump of the old Diet had voted its own demise in a pro forma sitting, is likely to make little immediate difference to the government of Austria. It has been decided on by the Cabinet and im- posed on the country after the forcible dissolution of the Socialist Party. But as things stand it may be regarded as a slight move towards representative government, for there has been no representation at all for the last twelve months and more, and there will be at least some semb- lance of it in the new Corporate State, with its State Council, Economic Council, Cultural Council and Provin- cial Council, and a Federal Diet supreme over them all. Austria is no longer described as a Republic, but as a Federal State, and the return of a Hapsburg monarch is now possible without constitutional amendment. As in Italy the Austrian Corporative State still exists only on paper, and the dictatorship of Dr. Dollfuss is likely to continue with little change for the present. The expected appointment of Prince -Starhemberg, head of the Heim- wehr, as Vice-Chancellor, has been made, and the Heim- wehr and the Chancellor's Patriotic Front will now be fused. Little, for the moment, is being heard Of the Austrian Nazis.
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