STARVING AUSTRIA.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16359, 2 November 1918, Page 7

STARVING AUSTRIA.

PILFERING AND THIEVING rampant.

(Br Mrs Julian Grande.) (SPECIAtLY WRITTEN FOR "THE TRfcS. ) BERNE.. September 9. Before the war the Viennese had a saying, which they faithfully follow "Let us eat all we can get an wear out our clothes, for we are soon to heaven." At no time did they abie by this saying more literally than now. They certainly eat all they can ge , an they havo certainly worn out heir clothes, and far more than ever before have they been leaving this world for, let us hope, a better one. A lady who has, just come from Vienna, and who was detained at the Swiss frontier by the Austrians for ten days before being allowed to cross it, assures me that humanly speaking it is impossible for the Austrians to go on for another winter's war. This is confirmed by cuch Austrian deserters as contrive to escape to Switzerland, who declare that they did so not from cowardice, but. from hunger. only people who &et enough to eat, they declare, "are the officers and their families."

Three meatless days a week (Monday, Wednesday, and' Friday) have) been reintroduced throughout Austria. Poultry, sausages, game, rabbits, and ham are all considered meat. But this does not mean that people can necessarily get meat on other days—even a minute portion. Poultry and fat mostly come from Hungary, and tho official prices, which, of course, are never adhered io, are, for an old fowl (for boiling only) 11 kronen (about 8s lOd) a kilo, for geese and ducks 8-13 kronen per kilo, for raw fat 27 kronen per kilo, aijd for clarified fat 34 kronen. I repeat that these arc official prices on paper, but when these articles actually have to be bought, twice as much is often paid for them. The Viennese can get no poultry or meat from either Roumania or Serbia, because the Germans are scouring the land and getting hold of everything for themselves. People from Austria often try to get food across tho frontier from Hungary, but the Hungarians strongly disapprove of this, and they guard their frontier so strictly that frequently Austrians trying to slip across with food have been shot down by tho Hungarian frontier guards. People also experiment with all kinds of herbs and mushrooms, or fungi, in order to satisfy their hunger; and the result is that there have been a great number of poisoning cases of late, not a few of them fatal. In Pressburg alone, for inj stance, there have just been eleven I deaths and seventy cases of serious poisoning from eating mushrooms. Pressburg is in Hungary, and in Hungary matters are not so bad as in Austria, but even there, particularly in Budapest, food conditions are exceedingly serious. Before the war Hungary used to supply Austria with 20 million Meterzentner (more than 18,000,000 of cereals annually, but since the war she has sent less wan a third of this quantity. Naturally 60 much suffering from hunger has made the people reckless, and thieving, pilfering, and breaking and entering have become unprecodentedly common. Not only is food stolen, 1 but also clothing, and of late even altar | cloths, cassocks, and surplices from tne churches. Linen, of course, is worth fabulous prices now in Austria. It is not always professional burglars who commit these robberies,, and who breakand enter, but railway employees, post office officials, and even detectives set to watch food supplies. In some cases when people are caught, the Magis- | trates, when they hear the evidence, i are obliged to take a lenient view or I the theft. The other day a servant girl aged fifteen was charged by her mistress with stealing various eatables. The poor child pleaded that she got so | little to eat that this was tho only way Ito satisfy her hunger; and the Magistrate's decision was that it was allowable for a hungry servant girl to help herself to food from her mistress's stores. But the most pitiful sight to be seen daily in the streets of Vienna is the number of children going about begging for food. ! What things will be like in winter, says my lady .informant, she cannot imagine. . It is still warin, and people can go about in skirts or trousers, as the case may be, of paper material, and can wear clogs or paper shoes. ' Such boots as are to be bought cost in Hungary 65 kronen per pair for men and 50 kronen for women—for factory workers or working people. That is, about £2 12s 6d and £2. Boots madJb to order cost 175 to 180 kronen. In Austria the amount of leather allowed for the civilian population is not suliicienb to supply 5 per cent, of the people with boots. Consequently it is proposed to provide them with boots ! with paper uppers and wooden soles, which, however, would not be endurable l'or people obliged by their occupation either to walk about or to stand much.

Apparently paper garments have not proved wholly successful, either in Aus-tria-Hungary or in Germany. The other day a number of Austrian farmers went out to work in the fields, wearing fine new paper trousers, with, of course, no underclothing, wliich is almost unobtainable and prohibitively dear. They were overtaken by a tremendous thunderstorm, with heavy rain, which their paper trousers were evidently not intended to stand. Thus they were obliged to return to their village with very little in the way of trousers left. Moreover, these paper garments and undergarments are not at .all cheap—indeed, they are very dear. "Die Zeit," for instance, complained the other day not only that people disliked paper underclothing, but that they could not afford it, and the only linen underwear now to be found in a shop here and there is some very costly embroidered garment, which was not commandeered because of its excessive fineness and fragility. Again, to quote "Die Zeit," a shirt of paper material costs as much as formerly one of the very finest pure Irish linen would have cost. My lady informant, who was not a, mere Hausfrau, but a person who had mixed with different classes in Austria, says that the people are now as indifferent as they were before the war. They still refuse to fret or fume or to trouble about the course of events. The birthrate is everywhere falling, and the death-rate rising. For instance, in one parish, that of Altlerchenfeld, in Vienna, in 1913 there were 389 baptisms, while in 1917 there wero only &5. In the same parish the death-rate, in 1913 was 164, and in 1917 it was 210. And, be it remembered, this does not include the deaths of men on the battlefield or in military hospitals. The marriage rate, however, is not decreasing, for the soldiers' wives maintenance grant is a great attraction. and numbers of women marry merely for the sake of securing this. "What will be the end of Austria?" I asked by lady • informant. "Oh.'' she paid, "the' people will just die out. They will not revolt, for the simple reason that the.v 'are too weak to tlo so. And thore is nobody to revolt. The soldiers at the various fronts are kept well in hand by the Germans, and anv men at home are either old, weak, maimed, or blind.". Moreover, for some time past hunger restileice has been nrevalent in Bohemia and certain other parts, and is apparently increasing steadily. The number of cases in July showed a very great increase on the number in May.

In one district, Reichenberg, in May there were SO9 sick and 5 dead: in July 1500 sick and 30 dead. In ancther .district near the number of victims in May was 659 (7 fatal cases), while the last report gives—official figures—l2Bl cases, witlr 20 deaths.