Budget

Sinking party differences, the Austrian Assembly passed unanimously a normal budget for the current financial year:

Revenue 533,000,000 gold crowns

Expenditure 520,000,000 gold crowns

Surplus 13,000,000 gold crowns

The budget has to go before the Council of the League of Nations before it can be put into effect (Austrian finances being under the supervision of the League) and it was in order to present a united front to the Council that the Assembly passed the measure without opposition. The recent attempt on the life of Chancellor Seipel (TIME, June 9), who was reported in a critical condition, was said to have had some psychological effect in determining the action of the Assembly.

Dr. Alfred Zimmerman, Commissioner General of Austrian Finances for the League, said that in 1922 it was not thought that Austria could have a normal budget before 1925, but that conditions were now much changed and the permanent revenue considerably increased; he thought, therefore, that higher expenditure was to some extent justifiable.