IN AUSTRIA TO-DAY

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25550, 19 July 1948, Page 3

IN AUSTRIA TO-DAY

POTENTIAL NATURAL RESOURCES COUNTRY SIMILAR TO NEW ZEALAND Austria was a small country, but it had a great natural wealth in the form of coal and iron deposits, and like New Zealand, had almost unlimited potentialities for hydro-electric power, said Mr J W. G. Duncan, M.8.E., m a national broadcast last evening. Mr Duncan, a New Zealander, was controller of exit and entry, British element, in the Allied Commission for Austria. Austria was a country like New Zealand in many ways, Mr Duncan said. The deep valleys the rivers full of trout, tree-clad slopes, and passes with hairpin bends were all similar to the drive from Auckland to Wellington. , . ... Many New Zealanders had probably fought against the Austrians during the war. and while not considering them good soldiers, probably looked on them as Germans, and adopted the theory that “the only good German is a dead German.” In a sense the Austrians were not Germans. They were, to a certain extent, first cousins to the Germans, and at a time when Hitler was the rising power in Europe, and when no one else was willing to lift a finger to help them, they were only too glad to make play with that relationship. They had paid for their error and it appeared certain that they would not make a similar mistake. It was noticeable in Vienna that foreigners were always welcome, and that the Viennese put themselves out to be nice to them. Mr Duncan said. That had always happened in Vienna, as it was the most cosmopolitan capital in the world, but it was always noticeable that if anyone spoke with a German accent, particularly a Prussian one, the Viennese went out of their way to be rude to that person. That was not to impress the occupying Powers, who could not tell one accent from another.

Restoring Vienna Vienna was badly knocked about at the end of the war, and about onethird of the city was destroyed, Mr Duncan said. When the Allies arrived they made the mistake of setting about cleaning their sectors. The Viennese sat back and watched with great satisfaction. yet when. the Allies woke up and said “Here are the tools, you get on with the job” it took them about a year of reluctant scraning among the bricks to realise that the Allies were not going to do the work for them. A large proportion of the population was riddled with Nazism during Hitler’s time, particularly in the Civil Service, where the people, for fear of losing their jobs, joined the party. Towards the end of the war the Germans had' to institute a reign of terror to keep the Austrians up to their work. The most important difference between Germany and Austria was that Austria Was a freely elected Government. The Austrians were keenly interested in politics and they voted in the election of 1946 approximately half each in favour of the People’s Party (ednservative) and tMe Socialists. The Communists received only a negligible vote. It might be thought by some to show the perversity of the Austrian nature that the only small section which sent in a Communist majority was one which had not been liberated by the Red Army. A coalition Government was formed, with the two major parties in approximately equal strength, and with ofie Communist Minister who had since resigned.