a a Broad-casters, if a con- muen-do, de- JAY FRANKLIN We, The People Germany Annexes Austria Washington, D. C The long agony is over at last. Germany has annexed Austria. That union of the two countries .which was pro hibited to the defeated central powers by the Treaty of Versailles and which, if it had been encouraged in the form of the Customs Union proposed in 1931, might have saved democratic institutions in Central Europe, has been accomplished by Herr Hitler's rearmed "Third Reich.'4 , As late as 1934, when the Nazis assassinated" Chancellor '".Dollfuss and attempted to seize Vienna, Italy mobilized her troops on the Brenner Pass and prepared to resist this fatal move by open warfare. Hitler recoiled and awaited the moment when German armaments were too powerful and Italy too isolated to permit armed inter-ference with the annexation. Since politics is the art of de ciding ' where do we go from here, there is fto sense in cursing the Germans for their daring to join together what the Peace Treaties had put asunder. Neither Eng land, France nor Italy is in a position to protect Austrian Inde pendence. There is only one ironic commentary on the whole episode: Hitler cemented his power in Ger many by a series of national elec tions on major issues of the Nazi policy. The excuse for the present coup was that the Austrian govern ment proposed to follow the same course and hold a plebiscite on March 13 on the issue of nazifying Austria. Moreover, Italy, whose leader has repeatedly shown his contempt for democracy, appears to have relied on the democratic process of the proposed Austrian vote to save Austria as a buffer-state bewteen the Third Rome and the Third Reich. Two consequences appear to be bound to follow. Germany will now clean up in Central Europe and resume the old "Drang Nach Oaten," the march to the southeast. The Balkans are full of congenital band-wagon jumpers. Hungary, Jugoslavia, Rumania and Bulgaria will make terms with the Nazis, Czechoslovakia surrounded and and isolated cannot hold out for long against the German push. The only question is whether Greece, Al bania, and Turkey can be held on the side of the Mediterranean alliance which will be organized to counter this totalitarian drive. Italy must now fall into the eagerly waiting arms of England and France. The conquest of Ethiopia will be regularized and the Spanish Civil War. brought to an end, as soon as the weight of events compels the Italian govern ment to respond to tne tactful over tures of the British government. A temporary stabilization will fol low tne present tension out then, as the German power consolidates itself, Soviet Russia will feel the force of developments and be led to resume Its pre-war diplomatic relationship to the Entente powers The alternative course is for Italy itself to submit to German domination and become the diplomatic tail of the Nazi dachshund and anyone who has studied Italian history and knows the Italian temperament will realize how deeply such a status would be resented and feared by the Fascist ' govern ment. In the meantime. It Is imnortant to remember one thing before rais ing .tne war-cry against the Ger mans. Even' if Austria," Czecho-' siovama and Hungary fall Into the German power, that power is still far less extensive, far less well-organized, than it was before 1914, when the Triple Alliance Included pre-war Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, ' the Kingdom of Italy, and friendly arrangements or understandings with Bulgaria, Rumania and the great. Turkish Empire. The Germans can get a great deal more than they now possess before they are again as formidable as they were in 1914 and In the meantims ronfntanre tn the German advance will organize rcseii as n am before the war. There pemalns the miHon nf minorities speciflcallv th Jowl ah minority in Austria. On German treatment of those unfortunate people who must suhmit tn with. out becoming members of, the new "hot" Arvan Emnire will rlenpnrl tn a great degree the world's reaction to Nazi exnanslon. (Copyright. 1938)
