Natural Law

It was nothing one could see, nothing one could read, but suddenly tension throughout Austria relaxed last week. War clouds that have hung so black for so long rolled back a little. There was even a pale hope that Austria might be able to preserve her independence without turning Nazi. U. S. correspondents in Munich reported that detachments of the threatening "Austrian Legion" of Nazis were being withdrawn from the frontier.

Crisis or not, there was still plenty for diminutive Chancellor Dollfuss to do. Just a year after he had dissolved Parliament, he let it be known last week that the old Constitution of Austria was definitely and finally abolished, that a new Austro-Fascist Constitution would be proclaimed within a week. In the Official Gazette Government Adviser Robert Hecht explained things:

"The State has the right to exist, and its leaders are duty bound to defend it without regard to legal, even constitutional limitation. This law of state necessity has its roots in natural law, and stands above the Constitution."

The Government declared out of office any man elected to anything on the Socialist ticket. A single labor union on the Italian Fascist model was promised. Recruiting for Army, Heimwehr and police was pushed vigorously. In every city little squads of recruits in civilian clothes were to be seen drilling busily.

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