Attempt to Establish Nazi International

Fascist leaders from four countries have been meeting secretly in Vienna this week with a view to co-ordinating reactionary activity throughout Central Europe, the Daily Herald” reports to-day.

Those taking part in the conference included, it says, the notorious German konarchist conspirator, Captain Pabst, who has played an important part in all Fascist activity in Central Europe during the past ten years; two Italian members of Parliament; representatives of the Hungarian reactionary group; Herr Dumoulin, who is commander of Hitler’s headquarters at Munich, and reputed to be the chief of his Secret Service.

#oth the Austrian Nazis and the Austrian Heimwehr took part in the conference, the “Herald” states.

Austria occupies a key position in Central Europe, it points out, and a reorganisation of the Austrian Fascists was therefore one of the chief purposes of the conference.

If the reorganisation succeeds, the “Daily Herald” says, it will mean an important step towards a strong Fascist International ruling Central Europe.

ANTISEMITIC INTERNATIONAL

Reports of the establishment of an antisemitic Fascist International have been current for many years. In 1923 it was reported that the Swastika organisations in Austria, the Nationalist organisations in Germany, the Roswoj in Poland, the Awakening Magyars in Hungary, and the Russian Whites in Paris, Berlin, Prague, Belgrade and elsewhere were holding meetings to discuss the formation of an antisemitic International. Mr. Henry Ford, who was at that time actively engaged in antisemitic agitation, which he renounced in 1927, was mentioned as the centre of this movement.

In 1925 there was a conference of representatives of antisemitic organisations in Hungary, Austria, Roumania and Germany held in Budapest, and Deputy Tibor von Eckhardt, the President of the Union of Awakening Magyars, issued a statement that the Conference was attended by Professor Cuza, of Roumania; ex-Deputy Fritsch, of Germany, the publisher of the German edition of Henry Ford’s “International Jew”; Colonel Wrangel, representing the Russian antisemites; and others, and that an international antisemitic bureau had been set up.

Count von Reventlow, one of the leading German Nationalists, announced the following year, in August 1926, that another antisemitic international conference had been held in Denmark, the previous moth attended by representatives from England, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Roumania, Czecho-Slovakia, and other countries, at which it was decided to establish a Christian Aryan front against the Jews all over the world.

Attempts to link up the Nationalist antisemitic movement in Central Europe with Italian Fascism have been made repeatedly. In 1925 reports were current in Berlin that Hitler had been invited by Signor Mussolini to come to Rome to begotiate for the establishment of a Fascist International. Signor Mussolini deni this report to the Chief Rabbi of Rome, adding that there was no justification for foreign antisemitic parties seeking to strengthen their antisemitic activity by calling themselves Fascists. The Fascist movement was purely Italian, he said, was not antisemitic, and had never contemplated any antisemitic activity.

FASCISM NOT FOR EXPORT SAYS MUSSOLINI

In 1927 Signor Mussolini addressing Roumanian journalists in Rome, said:

Fascism, as I have repeatedly declared on previous occasions, is not for export. The special conditions in Italy demand political forms other than those which exist outside Italy. Fascism seeks unity; antisemitism seeks destruction and separation. Fascist antisemitism, or antisemitic Fascism, is a gross absurdity. We are much amused in Italy when we hear that the antisemites in Germany are seeking to associate Fascism with their antisemitism. We also hear from other countries that a Fascism with antisemitic colouring is trying to obtain foothold there. We vigorously protest against these attempts to compromise Fascism in this way. Antisemitism is a product of barbarism, while Fascism stands on the highest plane of civilisation and is diametrically opposed to antisemitism. Our aim is to unite all sections of the people under our flag. If we exclude Jews we shall only be artificially strengthening the camp of our enemy, for it is obvious that those who are not with us are against us.

The London “Sunday Times”, speaking of the same question in September 1930, wrote:

“Fascism is not a commodity for export” is a dictum which came from the highest quarter, and it was repeated in slightly different language not long ago to the editor of an extremely influential German newspaper. It is flattering to Italian vanity to find the word “Fascist” being annexed and the Roman salute being given on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube, but a trifle embarrassing to learn that they are associated with such tenets as, for example, antisemitism, which any Italian would roundly dismiss as political imbecility.