But the international situation remains in any case gravely aggravated.
What Germany's direct respon- sibility for Wednesday's events may • be no one knows. Her indirect responsibility is beyond question great, and if the Austrian question is raised at Geneva, or in moire limited conversations between Britain, France, Italy, and perhaps Czechoslovakia, it will be impossible not to take cognizance of it. The new developments are a cynical comment on the apparent agreement reached between Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini at their Venice meeting last month, and the anti-German feeling in Italy will be immensely intensified. Germany stands isolated in Europe today as she never has since the Hitler revolution of eighteen months ago and the situation is complicated by growing uncertainty about the prospects in Germany itself. The shootings at Munich may have been the end of an episode or only the beginning, and accounts of the growing tension between the Chancellor and his chief financial supporter, the great industrialist Thyssen, reveal only one more of many rifts. There is clearly a. case for an immediate exchange of views between Britain, France and Italy as to how the fabric of Europe can best be held together. In the circumstances. M. Doutnergue's success in averting a Governmental crisis in France puts all Europe in his debt.
