AUSTRIA AND SANCTIONS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.).
Sin,—In your issues of September 1st, 1933, and January 26th, 1934, you were good enough to publish two letters from rue, in which I urged that the attempt on the part of members of the League to bolster up the so-called " independence' of Austria was both a crime against League principles and also, from the point of view of League interests, the gravest of blunders. The proper solution of the Ansi Han question, I tried to say, lay in the Austrian people being allowed to settle their own destiny for themselves by means of a plebiscite held under the auspices of the League. Today, in view of the attitude of the Austrian Government towards sanctions, it can be claimed that these views have been definitely justified. I do not know whether it will be considered practical politics to raise this question now, but it may he remembered that, if the League does nothing, Italy may be tempted some time or other to strike a bargain with Germany over Austria. The League of course does not bargain for support from anyone, least of all from Germany. Its business is to deal with each question separately, without fear or favour, in accordance with what seems to it just and consistent with its own principles. But it may well be that, if it could pronounce in favour of a fair and democratic solution of the Austrian question, one arrived at by direct consultation of the Austrian people themselves, it would find that it had won back the support of Germany.—Yours,
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