THROUGH SEVEN COUNTRIES ON THE DANUBE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3141, 30 October 1922, Page 8

THROUGH SEVEN COUNTRIES ON THE DANUBE.

(By Leonard Spray.) To ■ traverse four countries without being harassed by Customs officers and passport inspectors sounds impossible, in these days when the world has been made safe for those functionaries but very uncomfortable for their victims. But people have done it, myself amongst them. All you have to do is to board a steamer at Vienna, present your credentials, and get your luggage sealed. And from lhere to Belgrade you are immune from bureaucratic interruption. If you have suffered the irritations of railway travel, that immunity will constitute one of the main charms of the voyage. But there are lots of others, as you glide through Austria and Czccho-Slovakia. Hungary, and' .lugo-Slavia. To those countries you may, if you wish, add two more—Bulgaria, and Roumania, though you will have to change ship once or twice, before you reach the Black Sea. That makes six, and you may also glimpse a seventh if you start your voyage at Fassati, where, in Germany, the stream begins to be navigable for passenger steamers.

At certain stretches a mile broad, the Denubo is the mightiest and longest of European rivers. Its history is as stormy as its flow is placid. It has seen the comings—and goings— of the Romans and the Huns, the Magyars and the Turks. And of earlier tribes whose very names are lost, except, perhaps to its own teeming memory. Much of this history is still written on its banks, so that from the deck of your steamer you may trace the earthworks of Roman settlements and the ruins of strongholds of mediaeval robber knights. You can see the remnants of the castle where our own Richard the Lion-Hearted was held prisoner, and the ruins of Turkish fortresses and Magyar citadels. And if your tastes don't turn specially to ruins, there is enough of everything else in the passing panorama to engage your interests. Spreading meadows and craggy hills. nestling villages and bustling towns, wooded; islands, and alluring backwaters. If these attractions are not adequate, then you may go ashore and "do" three capitals—the capitals of Austria. Hungary and Jugo-Slavia. Vienna you will probably have explored before your embarkation. You will, perhaps, have left it in melancholy mood —a mood induced by its empty palaces and other signs of a faded glory. All the more uplifting will lie your first glimpse of Budapest. For you come to it at night, when hill-built Buda is agleam with light, leading, by dazzling stairways to the gleaming windows of its castled-crest. The river runs at its foot, and on the other, side lies Pest, joined to its twin city by three fine bridges. ( Thc morning's view won't disappoint the iiromi.se of the night. Without leaving your steamer you'may see the Church of St. Stephan. the great castle where Admiral Horthy guards the vacant throne of (be Hapsburgs. and. one the other bank, the Houses ol" Parliament. That designation will come naturally to your mind because, a new building, it had its architectural inspiration in our own Palace of Westminster, so that at a superficial glance it is almost a replica, except that a dome takes the place of Big Ben's tower. The next day w.ill find you at Belgrade—the capital and royal residence of .lugo-Slavia. If you had imagined it as a Balkan town you will be both disappointed and pleased. Disappointed because you won't find it as dirtily picturesque as you. perhaps, anticipated. Pleased, at the evidence of industry and enterprise which is seeking to transform the erstwhile chief town ol a minor Balkan principality into the worthy capital of a European State. On the business side, the Danube hasn't yet achieved the position it ought to occupy as a highway of international trade. For this, political considerations, not natural ones, are responsible. Though the Peace Treaties have declared the Danube an international waterwav from Ulm to the Black Sea, some, at any rate, of its seven national riparian owners still maintain national barriers, so mercantile traffic is hampered bv many serious, and several ridiculous, restrictions. The interests of European prosperitv demand their removal, so that the Danube may fulfil its proper destiny as a river of peace and plenty as well as pleasure.