CENTRALEUROPE’S DROUGHT

Press, Volume LXXXIIi, Issue 25302, 30 September 1947, Page 7

CENTRALEUROPE’S DROUGHT

Damage Described As Very Great RAINS BEGIN IN SOME AREAS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 29. “The prolonged drought in central Europe is expected to end soon,” says the Vienna correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph.” "There have already been local rains. The damage caused is very great, .and makes the food prospects more grim than the most cautious estimates a short time ago. “Industries have received a severe setback through power shortages. The Danube is at its lowest for 80 years, and all major shipping movement has been halted. Big forest fires continue to burn in many districts. » “The drought damage in the Danube basin runs into hundreds of millions of pounds. The losses in Hungary alone total about £140,000,000. The harvests in Austria, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Jugoslavia have suffered badly, and winter sowings are jeopardised. The potato crops and fodder supplies, both important items in the domestic economies of these countries, are much below normal. “The effects of the drought will be a tangible factor on Government policies in the central European States. For example, the joint programme issued by the Communists and Socialists in Hungary stresses that one of the main aims is to balance the budget, which has been endangered by a bad harvest caused by the drought. ‘‘These countries will be more than ever dependent on food imports, and those Governments which are Com-munist-dominated will turn increasingly to the Soviet Union for supplies, thus placing themselves still further in the Kremlin’s power. “As the hardships grow, there is increasing regret among the rural communities that their Governments, with the exception of Austria, so savagely spurned the Marshall plan. “In Austria, many factories remain closed because of the lack of power. The fuel situation this winter may be as bad as, if not worse than, last winter.”