NEW TENSIONS IN OLD VIENNA
Gedye, G. E. R.
New Tensions in Old Vienna By G. E. R. Gedye Vienna THE announcement of the changeover by the Western Allies from a military to a civilian Commission in Austria, and the combination of the latter...
...After this farcical Congress, the Communist press eargerly drew consolation for the peace fiascos in Berlin and Vienna from the desertion of Reuter's Berlin correspondent, John Peet, to the cold war enemy...
...The actual "Peace Congress" met in the Konzerthaus...
...The Austrians have to stand by and watch this liquid gold taken from their soil and carried off across the frontier...
...Native fellow travelers such as the careerist Prof...
...The warning that the Allies will withdraw their agreement to these clauses if Russia does not sign a treaty has naturally no effect on Russia...
...This unfrocked priest then excelled Nazi Franck's record by making personal attacks on the Austrian Chancellor, Leopold Figl...
...At the very same time, Moscow's troops, maneuvering in the neighboring province of Burgenland, terrified peasants plucking their cherries by carelessly firing a dozen anti-tank shells into their midst...
...He viciously attacked the Austrian Government and derided the idea that there was any freedom under it...
...That, at any rate, is the view which Austrian socialists express with surprising insistence...
...Russia's sacrifice of a useful though unimportant fifth columnist in the enemy camp suggests how urgent was the necessity of finding at least one person in this camp willing to make a public confession of faith in the peace offensive...
...Elimination of the Weltpresse...
...He was expelled from that city by Adolf Hitler when the Nazis annexed Austria and fled a Gestapo warrant in Prague when Hitler marched into Czechoslovakia more than a decade ago...
...this, many Austrians feel, virtually means that their capital is contiguous with Russia...
...Who is to check her movement of men and material from the other side of the nominal frontier with her satellite Czechoslovakia right up to Vienna...
...The world is familiar now with the word Zistersdorf, the oilfield which Russia seized in 1945 and has since exploited on the plea that it, and consequently all Austria's mineral wealth beneath it,- was "German property...
...The fact that he would never find there anything but the local version of the Kremlin mid-day gramophone record seems a good reason why the British should make sure that the Weltpresse continue in some form to offer reliable world and local news...
...The Russians have sharply stepped up the exploitation of this vast new oilfield...
...Everywhere the "peace dove" emblem was displayed by Moscow's dupes...
...G. E. R. GEDYE ranges over Central and Southeastern Europe for the London Daily Herald, whose bureau he heads in Vienna...
...In debating various possible consequences of the change-over, the fate of the organ of the British Information Services here, Die Welt-presse, is causing Austrian Socialists some headaches...
...Before going to Warsaw and Berlin, Peet was correspondent for a year in Vienna, where he was known as one of a small clique of fellow-travelers among the British correspondents...
...The Vienna "Peace Congress" came and went without attracting great attention outside the ranks of its Communist promoters, either in Austria or beyond it...
...Plojhar, today's uninvited guest, strode up the steps of Vienna's Rathaus where he roundly abused its Socialist burgomaster for not giving the performance his blessing...
...his defection only confirmed tendencies he was too cautious to flaunt earlier...
...Joliot-Curie, who was billed to appear, cried off because he "had a cold...
...The Soviet delegation to Vienna was headed appropriately enough by the film producer, Pudowkin...
...What hope is there, they ask, that the Russians will ever relax their grip on this country, which but for Moscow would now be one of the richest in Europe...
...His books include "The Revolver Republic," "Heirs to the Hapsburgs," and "Fallen Bastion," published in the United States as "Betrayal in Central Europe...
...II Meanwhile, thoughtful Austrians find the prospects of peace or war much more closely linked, as in other parts of the world, with oil rather than with such propaganda junketings...
...Dobrets-berger (who was at great pains to emphasize his orthodox Catholicism) did their best to fill the gaps, pounding the Soviet peace drum beside Ernst Fischer, the Austrian Communist star performer...
...Between Vienna and Zistersdorf, with its armed Communist works militia, lies a considerable area in which the forces of law and order would stand a good chance of halting any attempt to fling these armed men into the capital...
...But Russia's new great oil field starts only four kilometres from Vienna and extends right up to the Czechoslovak border...
...There is, of course, general satisfaction that the cost of the British element of the High Commission will now be borne by the British...
...Yet many Austrians are concerned lest the change may prove a prelude to such a phase of British foreign policy as came to fruition in March, 1938—the gradual abandoning of Austria as a hopeless proposition in order to appease an aggressor...
...Since the Russians have seized and operate through their "USIA" organization, 1,200 Austrian undertakings whose employes have to march as directed, this figure—the official police estimate—was pitifully small...
...The "Red Dean" of Canterbury did likewise because he was "tired...
...Such fears appear to be based largely on that respect for uniforms which still colors the outlook of many Austrians and the consequent feeling that Russia's position will now be considerably strengthened, since she keeps in the hands of the military the control which the Western Allies are handing over to civilian elements...
...They keep its output secret, but if it does not already greatly exceed that of Zistersdorf, it very soon will...
...He is one of those responsible for the long-continued, ruthless persecution of non-Communists in Czechoslovakia...
...Onlookers recalled with amusement how two years ago, before this obscure person had secured ministerial rank by lending his priest's soutane to Communist propaganda, he had bestowed on a public platform in Vienna the fraternal kiss on Leopold Figl, his "comrade in adversity" in Dachau...
...With only five per cent of the population Communist, nothing better was to be expected...
...Uninvited and unwelcome, Franck strode into Austria and proceeded to attack and insult the Government of the country whose guest he was until he was finally put across the frontier...
...Logically, the paper might perhaps be expected to die with the regime of purely military occupation, since it was arbitrarily started in order to put the British view before Austrians...
...But the act was stolen by a foreign artist, the renegade ex-priest who despite excommunication still calls himself "Father" Plojhar and is today Minister of Health in the Communist Government of Czechoslovakia...
...Today almost unread, it would become the first mid-day paper on the market...
...Some 15,000 Communists—described by their press as 500,000—were mustered outside the Vienna Rathaus on a Saturday afternoon following weeks of intensive campaigning and fake war scares...
...Wrong-headed it may be, but it is nonetheless understandable, that some Austrians deplore that the Western Allies, with the best of motives, should just now be relaxing military control while Russia's remains unchanged...
...Far worse is that its development has practically moved the Iron Curtain forward to within four kilometres of Vienna...
...New Tensions in Old Vienna By G. E. R. Gedye Vienna THE announcement of the changeover by the Western Allies from a military to a civilian Commission in Austria, and the combination of the latter office, in the case of Great Britain, with that of British Minister of Austria, has had a mixed reception...
...However, in Austrian democratic circles there is general concern at the possibility of this newspaper's death...
...an early midday paper, would leave the noon newspaper field free for the Communist propaganda sheet, Der Abend, to skim off the cream of sales...
...Should the American organ, Wiener Kurier, close down, when the Americans also adopt a civilian regime, it would mean that any Austrian wanting news more up-to-date than that printed the previous midnight for his morning papers would be forced to search for it in Der Abend...
...Works militia are arming and drilling in the Matzen oilfields where Russia rules unchecked...
...Officially, it has been cautiously welcomed...
...That is not the only headache which the Matzen oilfield gives Austria...
...His performance recalled that of the Bavarian Nazi Minister of Justice, Franck, in May 1933...
...Payment for the British "garrison troops" must still be made by the Austrian taxpayer, although for over two years American troops have paid their way in dollars...
...The world has as yet heard little of Matzen, the far larger oil field with which the Western Allies presented Russia in one of the top secret clauses of the still-born Austrian Treaty...
...Pietro Nenni, also expected, sent a substitute...
Vol. 14 • August 1950 • No. 8
