PRINCIPALITY AND POWER
By FRANK ZIEGLER
THE possession of an army, unless it be a very large one, may not always rank as a blessing: it encourages power- ful neighbours to intervene on the pretext that it is being used to oppress minorities. In Liechtenstein—despite the fact that the country is still technically at war with Prussia, having been overlooked in the peace treaty after the Austro- Prussian war—the only soldier is a dummy, dressed in the uniform of 1867, in the guard room of the Prince's castle. The only armed men in the State are the seven members of the Liechtenstein police force.
Perhaps because of its very defencelessness, this tiny principality of 62 square miles still succeeds in maintaining its independence and its democratic constitution--the legis- lative body is a Landtag of 15 members, mostly farmers. " Liechtenstein is a free fatherland," declared Dr. Hoop, the Prime Minister, on Prince Franz Josef II's accession last year, " . . . for which we will all struggle to our last brpath." Despite allegations in the British Press that this prince's recent visit to Hitler implied a declaration of allegiance, it was actually (as The Times pointed out) no more than the logical sequel to his courtesy visit to the President of the Swiss Republic.
General feeling, indeed, is anti-Nazi. Such Nazi propa- ganda as there is concentrates mainly on the town of Schaan. Lying only a few miles from Feldkirch over the Austrian border, and possessing the only railway station in Liechten- stein, this town, prior to 1923, used to be the clearing house for Liechtenstein-Austrian trade. In that year the princi- pality wisely switched from its customs union with Austria to one with Switzerland. The unemployed (most of them masons who are now unable to work, as previously, in Germany and Italy) are being encouraged to demonstrate in favour of at least an economic anschluss with Germany. The best comment on this is that after the last demonstration, out of 2,610 voters in Schaan, 2,492 signed a declaration " for a free and independent country, the ruling family of Liechtenstein and the keeping of the commercial treaties with Switzerland."
Switzerland, of course, is the crux. While the customs and currency union is undoubtedly of benefit to Liechten- stein, some Liechtensteiners maintain that Switzerland is the favoured partner. One agreement, for instance, debars Liechtenstein from making use of its peculiar facilities (there are something like 200 foreign holding companies registcre-1 in the country on account of the low taxation and fees) for advertising broadcasting. It is also hard for the people to understand, as a loyal master mason put it, that whereas in Germany work is always being provided by whatever dub.olis financial methods, in Switzerland the banks arc so full of useless money that they would not pay interest on their savings. Again, while Switzerland would take a very gra ie view of the absorption of Liechtenstein by Germany, shy would be quite unable to defend a country which lies- wrong side of the natural strategic frontier, the Rhine. It is in fact only too obvious that Switzerland fears an invasion through Liechtenstein: the bridges leading to that country have been mined, and fortification of the narrow gorge lying between Balzers and Maienfeld to the south is proceeding night and day (as the writer has good reason to know, having been arrested, and also getting one of the Liechten- stein family arrested, for inadvertently taking photographs).
Though a pact of mutual non-aggression with this com- pletely unarmed State has not yet been proposed by Germany, the mere fact that it was among the countries which Roose- velt asked the dictators to guarantee would now shine an unwelcome light of publicity on its absorption. Moreover all Germany would get would be 6,50o cows, 3,000 pigs, t,000 goats and 400 horses—for the foreign holding com- panies would of course change their address, and there would be no more Liechtenstein stamps for the philatelists. As the new prince (who is the first of his line to take a real interest in the country) diplomatically put it in his address to his people after his " coronation " on May 29th:
" Although the Principality possesses no especial natural resources or riches and cannot, owing to its size, play any part in world economics, yet, through your industry, solidarity and united effort, we can live a contented life in an independent, free country, in a land of culture, which, though small, could not be bettered."
Unless, therefore, it becomes too exasperating to the Nazis that just over the frontier there should still exist 10,5oo free and contented Germans who prefer to say " Gruss Gott " to " Heil Hitler," and who as long ago as 1867 put militarism in a museum, Liechtenstein stands a good chance of surviv- ing as the sole contemporary example of a democracy which is not also a " plutocracy."
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