Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
suffered greatly . Today , lodges are subject to police control and can hardly work . Naturally , the Austrian group lost a large portion of its members .
La Fontaine , in a letter of March 9 sent to one of his brothers , mentions the situation in this country through the case of Eugen Lennhoff , an important Austrian mason :
I just learned that Br∴Lennhoff is leaving Freemasonry . Did he become a Dolfussard ? 19 Are the freemasons of Austria also threatened with Hitlerian treatment ?
In the same letter , La Fontaine could not hide his concern :
Where are we headed if little by little anti-masonic action continues to spread across Europe ? What will we be able to do if we are clearly paralyzed in countries where we should be able to and have to engage in intense propaganda ? I cannot accept this powerlessness .”
Of course , but what action should be taken ? He seemed helpless , like so many others . Some believed that an understanding in international Freemasonry could halt the phenomenon . It was too late . Everyone stood their ground . The ULF took a position on this question in some of its publications . In La Heroldo ( no . 2 , 1934 ),
Brother Junod , former Grand Master of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands , shared this sentiment :
Has our International League of Freemasons not suffered losses from the lack of understanding between masonic nationalities , as a result of the war , or the peace , or both ? The grand masonic sentiment has not yet healed , it has not even sufficiently calmed the resentment of the worst days of the past !
International meetings did , of course , have their momentary success . They did not have the most desirable and fundamentally essential result : Restoring the weakened foundations of a global Brotherhood to consolidate the elementary principle of a global economic and political restoration . [ ... ] We do not want to waste time with complaints . Even less to point fingers of accusation against each other .
There is something better to do .
A truly immense work demands all our attention , all our strength .
Finding the Path to Masonic Collaboration ...
Other appeals followed , along
with other observations that were hardly encouraging . A few months later , in issue 3 , 1934 of La
19 La Fontaine is referring here to Engelbert Dollfuss , chancellor of Austria since May 1932 , who suspended parliament in March 1933 .
58