SOVIET SEES PERIL
IN AUSTRIA'S SHIFT
Agreement With Germany Held
to Be Victory for Hitler in
His Plans for War.
FOES OF THE REICH DIVIDED,
Moscow Stresses Simultaneous Efforts of Japan to Have Ties With Bolsheviki's Enemies.
By WALTER DURANTY
Special Cable to The New York Times.
MOSCOW, July 13.-The Austro-German agreement produced little
surprise and less applause here.
Somewhat sourly the Russians have
come to recognize that one of the
worst things about Chancellor Adolf
Hitler is that he goes ahead steadily
with his program, outlined in his
book, "My Sttruggle."
After the remilitarization of the
Rhineland, the extension of German influence through Austria was
the next logical step. It has been taken and although there is no editorial comment in the Soviet press
and little is to be gathered from
the non-committal headlines, the
news received prominent treatment
in Moscow newspapers, indicating
it was regarded as of cardinal importance.
The best informed Soviet opinion
does not attempt to disguise the
fact that the agreement represents
a new success of Nazi diplomacy,
perhaps more important for the future than the Rhineland and occupation on March 7. It implies, Moscow thinks, not merely virtual
Anschluss—which means German
domination of Austria—but also the
spreading of German economic and
political influence in South Central
Europe generally and in Hungary
and Bulgaria in particular.
Opponents Disorganized Now
It means the Germans have taken
advantage of the British undecidedness, French Supineness and Italian
weakness—despite or perhaps because of the success of the Ethiopian campaign—to make a startling forward step.
No one here believes Germany
wishes to antagonize Britain at this
juncture, but Moscow is well aware,
of the conflicting currents of British opinion and understands that an
influential, if perhaps not numerically great, section of British opinion would see a German Eastern
European drive against Soviet
Ukrainia as less of an evil than a
German attempt to revise Western
European frontiers by force.
If one accepts the presumably
reasonable thesis that Germany will
not long be satisfied with her present frontiers it is not difficult to
understand why many British Conservatives, to whom Russia is a
traditional enemy, regard the German-Soviet conflict with equanimity
in the hope that these potential
threats to British security might
fight each other to a standstill or
that Britain might intervene at the
eleventh hour and decide the war's
issue in accordance with British interests.
If the German game seems clear
enough to Moscow there are some
doubts here about the attitude of
Italy and Yugoslavia. Viewing politics realistically, the Russians are
inclined to think Italy made concessions to Germany in the Austrian
question to get an extra trump to
play against Britain and France. In
this connection it is significant that
Moscow opinion does not seem to
share the view of certain quarters
abroad that Germany made concessions in the new agreement. On
the contrary, it is regarded here,
however unwillingly, as a German
victory.
Yugoslavia Is Seen Won
Even Yugoslavia, Moscow thinks,
has yielded to German economic
pressure and has rather eagerly
swallowed the bait that the agreement will not involve a Hapsburg
restoration. The Russians know
well enough that restoration was a
Mussolini-Vatican policy which Hitler never favored in the slightest.
Moscow views the agreement pessimistically as further proof of the
replacement of collective security
under the League of Nations by the
old-fashioned system of alliances
and as growth of German power.
This forces the Bolsheviki to the
conclusion that nothing but their
own strength will save them from
a German onslaught.
At this point there is 'no small
significance in the space and attention the Soviet press has devoted
to the efforts of Japanese diplomatic, military and economic circles to strengthen the ties with
Germany, Hungary, Finland, Estonia and other potential enemies of
the Soviet Union. Although it is
felt that Japan is less dangerous
than she was some years ago, it is
realized Germany is more dangerous because she is stronger, and the
persistent Japanese efforts to
strengthen her ties to Germany
cannot be friendly to this country.
To sum up Moscow opinion, it
may be said that the Austro-German agreement is regarded as a
ne wand important factor in the
preparation for the coming war.