EUROPE TO-DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 5, 7 January 1929, Page 5

EUROPE TO-DAY.

AUSTRIA POVERTY STRICKEN.

SPAIN MOST PROSPEROUS

(By Telograph.—Own Correspondent . CHRISTCHURCH, this day. In the course of an "interesting interview which he gave on his return to Christehureh from extensive travels in Europe, Dr. C. F. Morkane said that Austria appe<%ed to be the most povertystricken country of Europe, and Vienna was no longer the gayest capital of Europe. The wages were poor and the standard of living was low. The people seemed depressed, not knowing what was going to happen next. There wae a great deal of dissatisfaction at the way in which the country had been cut up after the war. The people, however, seemed to be working hard and doing their best to get out of their difficulties. Budapest, the capital of Hungary, impressed Dr. Morkane as being much more prosperous than Vienna, but at the same time there was a jrreat deal of dissatisfaction over the way the country had been divided.

"The country which impressed me as being the most prosperous of all that I visited was Spain," said Dr. Morkane. "In the cities such as Barcelona, Cordova, fSevile and Madrid, there is a great deal nf activity. Roads and streets are being widened and improved. New railway stations and post offices are l)ein? built and there is a new concrete road for motorists running right through Spain. The country has the most tip-to-dato telephone system in the world. It is possible, froni a room in a hotel in Madrid, to get in telephonic communication with London in three minutes." A visit was paid by Dr. Morkane to Stockholm, one of the greatest centres for the radium treatment of cancer. He said more and more progress was being made with this method of treatment, and gradually better results were beinu obtained. No cure had yet been found, but he thought in the future still further progress would be made.

Dr. Morkane said he did not see a jrioat deal of Italy, but he touched at Naples. What impressed him about Naples since his last visit was the absence of slums and the absence of beggars. When he inquired where the beggars were the reply was '"Mussolini."