"Only Peace"

Only Peace

Veteran Berlin correspondents declared they had never before seen Adolf Hitler and the 741 members of the German Reichstag in quite such an electric state of emotion as last week. For the first time since 1866 Austrian officials had their place with the Germans. Austria, now a German province, sent her Governor (not Chancellor) Arthur Seyss-Inquart to Berlin by air, dressed in the uniform of one of Dictator Hitler's Elite Guard. Austrian-born Herr Hitler was greeted by Reichstag President Goering with the words: "You conquered Austria not with bloody use of force but with your warm heart. Wounds were not inflicted--they were healed!"

The 35-minute address of Orator Hitler, who usually speaks for some two hours and a half, struck these keynotes: 1) friendship with Mussolini, which drew the loudest Reichstag cheers; 2) denunciation of "Schuschnigg who possessed no legal right of existence!" which drew loudest boos and cries of "Schuschnigg shame!"; 3) announcement that the German Reichstag will dissolve and Germans as well as Austrians will vote in the coming plebiscite April 10, following which a new Reichstag will be seated; 4) declaration that "Germany wants only peace! . . . She is ready, however, to give her last man for honor and existence!";* 5) high-powered dwelling by the Dictator upon what he insists has been the plight of Austria and Vienna: "The State of Austria represented from the outset a State completely unable to live. The economic distress was correspondingly dreadful and the people's mortality figure rose in the most fearful manner. In Vienna alone last year out of 100,000 births there were 20,000 fatalities./- I don't say this because I believe I could impress the self-righteous citizens of the world, for I know they are completely without feeling toward such affairs."

*Some commentators thought what Hitler meant by this was that unless her colonies are returned Germany will fight.

/-Fuehrer Hitler got his integers mixed. Only 1936 figures are available, but there were only 11,817 births in Vienna that year. There were only 24,869 deaths from all causes.

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