EUROPE'S VITAL NEED.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 201, 25 August 1919, Page 5

EUROPE'S VITAL NEED.

COAL FROM SILESIAN MINES. DRASTIC ACTION NEEDED. MISSION TO INVESTIGATE. (By Cable. —'Press Association.—Copyright.) PARIS, August 24. Mr. H. C. Hoover, American Food Administrator in Kurope, who has returned from Silesia, has advised the Supreme Council that 'unless the widest 'autocratic powers are taken in dealing with the coal situation in Silesia nothing can save Europe from a severe economical crisis. He depicts alarming conditions throughout Austria and Hungary which are directly traceable to the scarcity of coal. The lack of food and hospital reipii- j sitev-i at Budapest, he states, is resulting in an appalling increase in the. prevalence of tuberculosis and infantile diseases. Paper clothing is being commonly used. There has been a general debacle in urban life owing to coal and food difficulties. Mr. Hoover states that the coal mines in Eastern Kurope could supply the region with sufficient coal, and might even he able to send supplies to relieve the crisis in the west. It has been decided to send a mission to Poland and Upper Sileaia to investigate the position, with a view to intensifying production. A German official message states that order has been completely restored in Upper Silesia. A wireless message from Berlin denies that Germany instigated the riots in 1 Upper Silesia. It blames agents from : Poland, who, it is alleged, have been disseminating anti-German propaganda in i support of the designs of the Polish annexationists. German counter-mea-sures, the message states, are now improving the situation, and intervention by the Entente Powers would not be justified.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) '