AUSTRIAN COMMUNISMD.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 140, 13 June 1919, Page 5

AUSTRIAN COMMUNISMD.

GOVERNMENT MAY FALL A REVOLUTION PLANNED. HELP FROM HUNGARY. (By Cable.— .Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 9.45 a.m.) LONDON, June 3 12. It is reported as likely that a Communist government will be established in Austria. The military disasters suffered by the forces have greatly weakened the Government, and public opinion is growing much more communistic. A revolution has been planned for June 15, aud the revolutionaries are looking to Hungary for aid. The Hungarian Government has greatly strengthened its position by- its successes against the Czechs, whose only powder factory, situated at Pressburg, is threatened. The situation is extremelygrave, as the Hungarians have cut oil" the Czechs from the Rumanians.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.)

Austria has been gradually tending towards Bolshevism or communism ever since the elections, held three months ago. It is no exaggeration to say that the mass of the population of Vienna, and in many of the country districts, notably German Bohemia, are on the very verge of starvation. Those with money can still obtain a sufficiency of food of doubtful quality, but butter, eggs, tea, sugar, coffee, "and milk arc almost unknown. Meat is almost unobtainable, ana the city is now faced with n succession of fourteen meatless days. But it is on the lower, middle, and laboiir,ing classes that the real hardships fall. Almost all the industries are at a standstill, owing to the lack of coal, and the amount of unemployment is enormous. There are thousands wandering about the streets, who have notfhng to do except to look for food and fuel. KlTorts are made to mitigate this evil by the payment of unemployment wages and by giving outdoor relief on a large scale. Each unemployed workman receives six kronen per day. and an allowance qf one for each child. Six kronen, at the present decline in the currency, works out at about 1/3. There are two systems of feeding the starving population. Owing to their being no coal, kitchens have been established in the poorer quarters of the city, where those with money or in receipt of unemployment wages can obtain soup and occasionally a small piece of moat, more generally horseflesh, in return for payment. There is a free distribution of soup for the extreme poor of one half-litre per day.

The break-up of the old Auxtrn-Huif j garian Empire into four principal coin- ; ponent narts. namely, German-Austria, i Czechoslovakia. Hungary and .Tutro- ' Plavia. has had the effect of immediately di-integrating the entire industrial and economic life of the cotintrv. All four Republics, fnrmerlv inter-dpnendent, are now struggling Rgainst one another in a boneless endeavour to do without their neighbours, and to become economically and industriall-- independent. Aust r ia comes worst out of the deal because she has f»\v resources of her own. and is dependent on her neighbou-s for food and coal. Rut the Czecho-Slovaks are unsvmn'it'ietV to her, and are embroiled in territorial disputes with Hungary, nnd are unable to supply Austria with any of their surplus food or coal. Thus, unhappy Austria li"s. lacking the prime necessities of existence, between the Jugoslavs to the south, the Hungarians to the east, and the Czcho-SWaks to the north. Tho failure of the existing Government to establ'sh anything in the wav of stable conditions is thus gradually driving the Austrians towards communism.