High Treason?

If Egon Seefehlner had picked almost anyone but Socialist Deputy Berthold Koenig to bribe last week he would still have his job as General Director of Austria's Federal Railways; Italy's alliance with Hungary would be more effective; Hungary would soon have 50,000 rifles; Austrian railroads would be embarked on a profitable if illegal business; France and Britain would continue to believe that they had nipped an international plot.

The 50,000 rifles plus 200 machine guns entered Austria from Italy. Ostensibly they are being "repaired" at the Austrian factory where they were originally made at Hirtenberg. Actually they were bound for Hungarian troops. Fortnight ago Italian papers splashed out revelations of a secret joint note from France and Britain to Austria demanding that the 50,000 Hirtenberg guns be either destroyed or shipped back to Italy (TIME, Feb. 27). Il Duce's protests at this "ultimatum" did not change the fact that the Austrian government of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is dependent on French and British loans. The Chancellor prepared to knuckle down to his big creditors.

Last week Austrian Railway Director Seefehlner called Deputy Koenig into his office. Berthold Koenig is not only a Deputy but an important official in the Austrian railwaymen's union and a Socialist. There was an official excuse for the conference: a threatening railway strike over a pay cut. Director Seefehlner had a little suggestion to make.

Herr Koenig knew that the Italian rifles must be returned to Italy? Director Seefehlner had arranged that carloads of the disputed weapons were to go back to Italy by Wiener-Neustadt. Wiener-Neustadt is but 20 mi. from Hungary. If the sealed freight cars containing the rifles were switched in the middle of the night at Wiener-Neustadt to a branch line running to Sopron, Hungary, there unloaded, resealed with forged seals, switched back again and forwarded empty to Italy, there would be 150,000 schillings ($21,000) in it for the Austrian railway union. It would also establish a nice arms smuggling business to the benefit of the Austrian treasury, her railways and the railway employes. A pay cut might not be necessary.

Loudly and vehemently Deputy Berthold Koenig spurned this idea, reported the entire conversation to the foreign Press and to Chancellor Dollfuss who suspended Railway Director Seefehlner with considerable embarrassment, promised Britain and France that the rifles, cross his heart, will really be sent back to Italy. Viennese newspapers scare-headed that ousted Director Seefehlner faces trial for high treason.

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