hour after hour. They were reported gaining the upper hand in some places, but on the whole the Heimwehr and the army contrived to give a good account of themselves.
(According to unconfirmed reports at a late hour from Belgrade, Italian troops massed at the Austrian border have already crossed the frontier. Jugoslavia, these advices say, will be compelled to mobilize her army if the reports are true.)
In Vienna government troops and their Heimwehr auxiliaries were feverishly entrenching and strengthening their positions in expectation of further attack by Nazis. The government quarter housing all government buildings and the entire cabinet is surrounded by barbed wire. All approaches are heavily guarded. Those who attempt to enter the district are thoroughly searched by the troops.
Nazi rebels disguised in Heimwehr uniforms are attempting to filter into the district and renew their attacks on the Austrian government.
The Nazi revolt has aroused the keenest anxiety and fear among the 200,000 Jews of the city. Austrian Jewry fears the same fate which befell the Jews of Germany and watches with fear and trembling the civil war which is sweeping Austria and which threatens to engulf them.
From the Austrian provinces, particularly from Styria and Carinthia, came news of desperate hand – to – hand fighting between Nazi rebels and government troops. Despite government assurances that all is going well in the provinces, the Nazis seem to be making great gains. Forty towns are engulfed by the fighting.
The Nazi rebels, knowing that hanging awaits them if they fail, are fighting savagely. Small in number, they have far more mobility than the government forces. They fight in guerilla fashion and as fast as they are dislodged from one town they occupy another.
Fighting was reported to have broken out today in Lueg Pass in the province of Salzburg. The pass was reported to be in full possession of the Nazis with government forces massing to dislodge them.
Late today government troops regained possession of Phyrn Pass after a battle with the Nazis which lasted all day.
The policy of the government headed by Prince von Starhemberg seems to to be clear the big towns of the Nazi rebels and then to mop up the countryside.
Troop movements are in progress all over Austria. The government has issued an appeal to all able-bodied men to join in the suppression of the Nazi revolt.
While government forces are immensely superior in equipment and training, the Nazis are putting up a bitter battle and are resisting to the very end.
Military courts are being set up and beginning Monday will function to try all rebels captured by the government troops. The courts are expected to work swiftly in meting out sentences of death by hanging.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
