New Cabinet

Austrian politicians stick together in a crisis, but when crisis is past Austria's Cabinet is apt to fall. Last week Chancellor Otto Ender & Cabinet were forced to resign after averting an Austrian panic with an agreement whereby the State guarantees the liabilities of Austria's key bank, her great and almost bankrupt Kreditanstalt (TIME, June 8). Although Dr. Ender had deserved well of Austria, his friends & enemies preferred not to associate themselves with the guarantee his Cabinet had given, hence they permitted it to fall.

Some Viennese remained panicky. One day last week a woman entered the Bank of Austria with $2,000 worth of Austrian gold schillings. To the astonished cashier she said: "I want to exchange this for American dollars."

"But why, Madame? What you have is actual gold. Why do you want paper dollars?"

"I want dollars!" snapped the woman. 'This is only Austrian gold. Who knows what may happen to poor Austria?"

Chancellor Ender, although he had resigned, felt chesty. To President Wilhelm Miklas he said with a certain arrogance that he, having saved the Kreditanstalt and averted panic, would "consent" to form another Cabinet with the under-standing that he would ask Parliament to grant him "extraordinary powers."

Excited Viennese editors headlined:

"Ender bids for Dictatorship!" His attempt to form a Cabinet promptly failed. So did other attempts by other Austrian statesmen last week. Even bald, beak-nosed, Monsignor Ignaz Seipel, boss of the powerful Christian Socialist party, failed after trying until 2:30 a. m. to form a Cabinet.

President Miklas looked about for a new national leader. He chose Dr. Karl Buresch, Governor of Lower Austria, handed him the Chancellor's mandate. In less than 24 hours Dr. Buresch had whipped together an excellent Cabinet including:

Foreign Minister, Dr. Johann Schober, negotiator of the "Customs Union" agreement with Germany (TIME, March 30).

Finance Minister, Professor Joseph Redlich, recently returned from lecturing at Harvard University. A most able economist and "above party," he is just the pilot to steer Austria into quiet fiscal waters.

Minister of War, Herr Karl Vaugoin, a bristling, strutting, "strong man." As Austria is disarmed he can do small harm.

Vienna's sensation-of-the-week was news that her Wirtschaftpolizei ("business police") were hunting Banker Fritz Ehrenfest, a former director of Kreditan-stalt. When they find him they expect to prove that he lost $15.000,000 of Kreditanstalt's funds in Manhattan's punctured stockmarket.

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