Dorothy Thompson

Los Angeles Times/January 1, 1923

Austria Bankrupt, Hungary Flirting With Fascisti, Moslem Shadow Looms Over Balkans

The new year promises no peace for the Danube states and the Balkans, but on the contrary dawns with the most serious complications and apprehensions. January 1 finds Austria absolutely bankrupt, despite the help given by the League of Nations, according to Chancellor Seipel, who made this statement in an address at Gratz yesterday.

Hungary is en route to new political trouble, her latest plan being to unite with the Italian Fascisti and overthrow the Trianon Treaty forcible by next spring. It is generally accepted that Hungary already has made an agreement with the Fascisti, while measures introduced in the Hungarian Parliament suggest full war preparations and several factories have been preparing war materials, it is said.

Fascisti Recruting.

Despite the Hungarian government’s official denial, the reports are repeated that the Hungarian Fascisti constantly are recruiting new members and the government is put to it to explain the extraordinary measures, practically amounting to conscription. The Jugo-Slavs fear that the first move of the Hungarian-Italian military alliance will be the murder of King Alexander. It is now practically impossible for any Hungarian to obtain a Jugo-Slav visa, the frontier precautions being extremely stringent.

Turk Hand Seen

To make things worse in the Balkans, the Turks stuffed to extend their influence to the Adriatic Sea by completing an agreement with Albania. The Komalists engage to guarantee the territorial integrity of Albania and to send a military mission there to assist in training the Albanian army, which will be augmented to war strength of 100,000, while Albania engages to accept the Turkish instructors for the army, elect a Mohammedian chief of state, and aver that Musselmans have adequate parliamentary representation. It is also asserted the convention contains secret clauses said to be directed against Jugo-Slavia and Greece.