PEACE OR BREAD.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 148, 22 June 1918, Page 5

PEACE OR BREAD.

FOOD RIOTS IN AUSTRIA. SERIOUS STRIKES BEGUN. I (Received 10.45 a.m.) ZURICH, June 21. During the food riots in Vienna shops were pillaged. Fifty thousand rioters marched in procession in the streets demanding peace or bread. Tlie police dispersed them with swords. Strikes have broken out in the Vulcan arsenal at Vienna and the Warschalowski aeroplane works. Tlie strikers number 100,000. Riots have also occurred in the suburbs. The situation is also serious in Prague and Brunn, and throughout Galicia and Bohemia. The Austrian Government has reduced the daily ration of bread to 90 grammes. The Minister explained that this action was unavoidable, because supplies were practically exhausted, except in Bessarabia, where they were very scanty.Count Tisza, speaking in the Hungarian Parliament, denied the accusations that Hungary was selfishly stocking food. He declared that many provinces had only one-fourth of the food necessary to maintain health. Germany must be convinced that Hungary's plight was as bad as Austria's. (A. and N.Z.) The newspaper "Echo de Paris" states that according to trustworthy information yon Hindenburg three months ago demanded three Austrian divisions for the 'western front. The demand was refused on the ground that the Austrian public would not permit the dispatch' of troops, but an offensive against Italy was promised, to which the German High Command agreed.— (Reuter.)