Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 33. (1980)

LIANG, Hsi-Huey: International Cooperation of Political Police in Europe, 1815–1914. An Essay Based on Some Austrian Archival Sources

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Hsi-Huey Liang

„Sich in der Gesellschaft dreier conservativer Grossmächte, wie Österreich-Ungarn, Deutschland und Russland zu befinden, möchte man noch hinnehmen, - aber an der Seite der Türkei, Serbiens und Bulgariens zu stehen, während die .liberalen' Mächte England, Frankreich, Italien und Nordamerika sich zur Adoptirung der polizeilichen Massnahmen des fraglichen Protokolls nicht verstehen wollen, hat hier einen wenig erhebenden und erfreulichen Beigeschmack.“

The Swiss were also annoyed by the reserved attitude of the Italians towards the Protocol, seeing that Italy in the past had repeatedly called on Swiss help in coping with her anarchist problems. Should not Italy make some sacrifices for the common good also54?

Heidler’s reference was to the Italo-Swiss dispute in 1902 over the publication on Swiss territory of the anarchist periodical Risveglio, which had agitated against the Italian royal house and, because of its anti-monarchical ideology, had incurred the disapproval not only of Rome but also St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna. The conflict had eventually been settled through the intermediary of Germany55). But it was Russia who had taken the lead in pressuring Switzerland towards compromise. The Russian minister in Berne had been instructed by his government to issue a sharp warning to the Swiss Federal Government to the effect that the affair

„touche aux intéréts de tous les États monarchiques. ... le Gouvernement Fédéral se montre trop indifférent ä ce que les anarchistes de toutes les nationalités aient trouvé refuge dans la presse Suisse et s’en soient fait ime arme pour leur propagande dangereuse, dirigée ouvertement contre le principe monarchique. Le Cabinet de Berne devrait en cela se rendre compte de ses devoirs intemationaux et de sa responsabilité morale vis-ä-vis des Gouvernements des États Européens qui depuis 1815 sauvegar- dent la neutralité de la République" 56).

The St. Petersburg Protocol was peddled among the European states on the eve of the Russo-Japanese War. A few months later the Russian Baltic fleet was sunk by the enemy at Tsushima (May, 1905) and European Russia was in the throes of large-scale revolution. The Viennese police banned a celebration of the Japanese victory which the organizers had wanted to hail as the triumph of Western culture (by which they meant modem Japan) over a barbaric and tyrannical empire, even though the would-be participants in the celebration included such prominent personalities as Count Coudenhove-Calergi and the court actress Katharina Schratt57). However, the extent to which the Russian Revolution of 1905 produced a closing of ranks by the police authorities of Europe is a question that requires much

54) Heidler to Goluchowski, Berne, 8 Jan. 1904: ibid. fol. 367 v.

55) Eduard Fueter Die Schweiz seit 1848 (Zurich - Leipzig 1928) 251-253.

56) Traduction d’un projet d’instruction au Ministre de Russie ä Berne [May 1902], Copie: Adm. Reg. F 52/9 Konv. Internationale Maßnahmen fol. 450r-454v.

57) Memorandum, Präsidium des k. k. Ministeriums des Innern, Vienna, 7 Feb. 1905. P. Nr. 815/1905: Allgemeines Verwaltungsarchiv Wien Ministerium des Innern, Präsidium Karton 1982 (Polizeibefugnisse, Theater u. öffentliche Schaustellungen 1900-1918).