CONTRASTS IN AUSTRIA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 12, 14 January 1918, Page 3

CONTRASTS IN AUSTRIA.

GAIETY AKD DISTRESS. !IT_EATi-ENT OP BRITISH! PBISO-vEBS. I have received on excellent authority the following account of condition. (writes the London "Times" special correspondent at Berne) in Austria as they existed up to a very few days ago:—

A person visiting Vienna to-day neither sees nor hears anything of the war. He finds the city -full of people who seem to think of nothing but enjoy ment; the cafes —where conversation about the war is taboo—are full ot people from morning till night, and restaurants, where everything except bread and potatoes can be obtained, if one's purse is long enough, are crowded; the opera and the theatres have nearly every seat booked in advance, and the cinemas are filled at every performance. In the fashionable streets of the city one cannot help remarking the extraordinary number of officers of all ranks and ot both cervices, who appear to have no other duties than to make themselves agreeable to ladies. Both morning and afternoon the pavements are go crowded that progress is a matter of the utmost difficulty. On all sides are fine shops full of the latest fashions, which find purchasers even at the prevailing exorbitant prices. Everything is up-to-date and of the best, but only within reach of the rich.

If one makes inquiries below the surface, however, one finds that housekeeping, even on tiie most modest scale, is almost an impossibility, owing to tiie difficulty of obtaining supplies. The rieti solve this difficulty by giving up all idea of catering for themselves and going to a good restaurant for most of their meals, but to those of moderate or small income the food problem is an everincreasing anxiety. The question is no longer "What shall I buy?" but "What can I buy?" for it is impossible to procure many articles which were formerly regarded as necessaries.

THE CARD SYSTEM. No longer can a customer, unless he can afford to pay a fancy price, choose a piece of meat; he must be thankful for anything he can get. Bread is not to be ■bought except with a bread card at a particular 6hop in the district in -which ihe purchaser dwells, and very often he cannot get bread at all. The supply ot potatoes is limited to lib pcs person weekly, but for some .reeks recently there were none on the market. Milk is so scarce that no person can have more than about one-fifth of a pint daily. Such things as coffee, butter, fat, macaroni, rice, petroleum, soap, and leather -.are not to be bought. Cards are the order of the day—bread cards, fat cards, sugar cards, coffee cards—indeed, meat is about the only article of food for which a card is not necessary. This is because it was found that the demand for meat was not increasing, presumably on account of its prohibitive price. But as one Viennese plaintively remarked to my informant:—"What earthly use are the cards to mc if I cannot procure ithe articles to which they are supposed to entitle mc!"

The shops are full at substitutes, and prices have gone -up enormously—in many ea6es as much as 300 or 400 per cent. A pair of men's boots of medium | quality - costs kr.So (at pre-war rates £3 10/); a lounge suit kr.300 (£l2 10/) and more; a small hoi of sardines kr.4.50 (3/9). Meat ranges from kr.U (5/) to kr.l4 (11/S) per kilogramme (__2lb). Danish butter is kr.l4 per kilogramme, and one candle (carriage size) coete 70 or 80 hellers (8d). Cheese costs kr.s (4/2) to kr.7. (5/10) per kilo gramme, and everything else is in proportion.

The poor people are not noticeable in the streets. They are only heard ol by chance, as it were, and their distress and privations during the past winter, mviaj to the scarcity of coal and coke and tin. price of food, -were the cause of numerous deaths from "hunger-typhus." Attempts are now being made to relieve their wants, and cheap meat is being supplied to the really needy; but how ever cheap this meat may be, it is not of much use if the money is not forthcoming to pay for it.

HOPES FOR PEACE, In the country life is strenuous. The' villages and small towns are peopled by old men, women, and children, for ever? nAn and youth capable of holding a weapon has been drafted into the Army. Day in and day out, from early dawn till late in the evening, the entire population of a village mar be seen working on the land trying to raise a crop sufficient for their needs during the coming year, alter a very large portion of the harvest has been commandeered by the Government to feed the Army —and Vienna. Even in peace time the peasant lives frugally, but now he has to be content with his piece of black bread, which he soaks in his substitute for coffee, and his knode' (a kind of dumpling), and he may consider himself very fortunate if he can add eggs from bis own fowls and potatoes from his own patch of ground. Meat he very seldom tastes, as he cannot afford to buy it, and he has jiiso to do without many articles, as they are unobtainable in the shops.

The attitude of the people towards the war may be described as one of total indifference—except in regard to j its duration. The only desire of the people is for peaccv "no matter who wins." For some nittle time there have been persistent rumours that Austria was about to make a separate peace. Indeed, tie Burgermaater of Vienna has spoken very openly and freely about the desirability of peace. Letters received from Vienna have spoken of peace almost as a fait accompli. If Austria could shake off German influence and get good terms she would make peSce to-morrow, but' as she knows that she would be obliged to give up so much of her territory she is obliged to continue the fight, in the hope that something; may turn up. As an Austrian soldier j friend of my informant expressed it:— 'TVe are begining to realise that all along w-e have been the tool of Germany, and whether we win or lose we shall have to pay, and pay dearly." ■Prom the Press it is most difficult to gather anything about the real state of affairs except as regards Parliamentary reform, which is being kept in the foreground and dangled before the eyes of the people to prevent them from dwelling upon more important matters. Every paper is carefully censored, and papers ■ frequently appear -with a column or i more blank; it is not an unknown thing ji for a number not to appear at aIL 1

BRITISH PR_EO_vEKS. •Any aocount of Austria would be incomplete without a short account of the condition of life of the British civilian prisoners. These number only a few hundred, and are divided into two classes, "Konfinierten" and "Internierten." "Konfinierten" are those who have sufficient private means 4whicl_.4__

eases of necessity can be supplemented! by a small monthly: grant from the Gov* eminent) to pay their own expenses, and are allowed to reside in certain small villages and have a restricted amount of liberty. They receive no help at all from the Austrian Government in tha way of rations, but are dependent upon! the local hotels and shops for their supplies, which very often fail altogether, besides being outrageously expensive. "Intenuerten," men without any. money at all, are collected in internment camps, which really are large wooden bar_acks situated sometimes ia a park or in a compound surrounded by. barbed wire, and these men are allowed no liberty at aIL Rations are served out daily, and each. "inn receives from: the Government 40kr (£1 13/4) a month, as the amount of food supplied is not sufficient, and has to be supplemented from the canteen. The food baa become 6teadily worse in quality: and quantity until it may be said without exaggeration that the men exist chiefly upon the parcels they receive from England. Potatoes, carrots, etc., are things of the past, and wurzels, beans, lentils, and a kind of vermicelli form the staple food. Meat is served out on- certain • days, but the portions could easily be larger and better mi quality.

The discipline varies considerably mi the various camps, according to the disposition of the commandant. Some are most lenient, and others seem to take a; delight in making the prisoners' lives wretched by doing everything to cause them annoyance. This is not astonishing, perhaps, when one thinks of tha position in life the commandants occupied before the war and the temptation to abuse the powen entrusted to them. If only military men instead of suchcivilians as head waiters or railway, conductors could be placed in charge of the camps the prisoners' lot would ba a happier one.

Last -winter was an especially trying one for the prisoners, owing to the scarcity of coal and wood and the impossibility of obtaining oil for lighting and cooking purposes, and it -was hy no means a rare occurrence -far men to be for days on end without firing or light. Even in the Central Hospital, in spite ot all the doctors could do, the general wards were on several occasions without fire., and once for more than a week the whole building -was in darkness, as there was no petroleum to work the electric dynamos, and no candles could be obtained. It is to he hoped that the Austrian Government wiE take steps during the coming summer- and autumn to procure a large supply of heating materials, oil, and stores for the use of the prisoners next winter or there are bound to be serious illnesses. The good health of the British prisoners may be attributed wholly to the care of their countrymen in providing for their wants.