RAILWAY CARRIAGES

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIV, Issue 12007, 27 April 1936, Page 4

RAILWAY CARRIAGES

IMPROVEMENTS BADLY NEEDED

OPINION OF AMERICAN TOURIST

That improvements to the railway carriages in New Zealand are badly needed was the opinion expressed at Auckland by Mr. L. Wilkes, an official of the Now York Central Railroad, who is touring the Dominion. While the locomotives were very good, the coach equipment might well be improved, he said. Ho had found the seats comfortable when travelling from Auckland to the Waitomo Caves, but on the branch lines they were “terrible.” He considered that heavier rollingstock was needed, and the style used by the American railroads could well be adopted on the New Zealand lines. Mr. Wilkes strongly condemned the wooden carriages. “In a bad accident hundreds of people could be killed through the wooden cars,” he said. “Steel cars would obviate a great deal of that danger. It is against the law to use wooden cars in America, except on branch lines Telegraph, discussed ths future of Central Europe. Expressing h's fear that Pan-Germanism might lead to Europe being ranged into two opposing camps, the Vice-Chancellor, who is the leader of the Heimwehr and of the Fatherland Front, said: The restoration of the Habsburgs does not content with her present borders; the ideal is a United States of Central Europe. Prince Starhemberg stated that his most serious concern was that a weakening of Italy by the Abyssinian war might disturb the balance of power in Europe, particularly in Central Europe. Prince Starhemberg did not conceal from me his hope that one day the Habsburgs may return to the throne of Austria. It is his conviction, however, that the day of the restoration does not belong to the near future. “Before then there are a number of problems to be solved,” he said. I asked him about the reports current' that a form of Regency might be set up in Austria and . that he should be chosen to play the principal role.

“It would not be fair play,” he replied, “were I to use the absence of the former ruling house to set up a throne for myself or to found a new dynasty. For some other person such a possibility might have been thinkable, but—not for Prince Starhemberg. “No; if the monarchy should be revived in later years it must be by the restoration of Otto von Habsburg. None other is possible.” I asked him to tell me why he thought a restoration of the Austrian monarchy would be impossible at the present time. His answer revealed his appreciation of the wider aspects of European affairs. “Our immediate object must be to bring about closer co-operation between the Central European countries,” he said. “ For the present, the States of the Little Entente —Czechoslovakia, Rumania, and Yugoslavia—are n*,vous lest a Habsburg restoration in Austria should lead to an attempt to rebuild the old Austrian Empire in Europe. “The Austria of to-day has no such thoughts. It is content to remain within its existing frontiers. “Its people ask only that they shall be secure against aggression from without, and political interference within. But while our neighbours have these fears, we will make no move to increase the difficulties. “Our need is for better mutual understanding and Increased confidence among the Danubian peoples, so that we may approach towards the ideal of a United States of Central Eurons.”