Parliament Studies University Problem

December 3, 1929

Vienna (Dec. 2)

The question of the universities was discussed today by a financial committee of Parliament. The minister educator condemned the recent anti-Semitic disorders and promised to establish quiet. The Socialist deputies opposed the claims of the anti-Semites that aliens are over-running Austrian universities. The Socialists presented figures to prove that alien students comprise only 17 per cent of the Austrian student body. German students are 15 per cent and native Austrians make up the rest. With these figures as a basis the Socialists argued that the so-called need of a numerus clausus is only a rally cry of the anti-Semites. The Socialist deputies also declared that university authorities have given subventions to anti-Semitic publications issued by the Nationalist student organizations. Anti-Semitism caused a fight between members of the Heimwehr and Austrian Hitlerites at Gmunden, an Austrian province, where a Heimwehr leader slapped the guest speaker at a gathering. Deputy Von Ribbontropp, because the latter said that the Heimwehr was financed by the Jews.