HUNGRY VIENNA

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 17, 21 January 1916, Page 2

HUNGRY VIENNA

SIGNIFICANT FIGURES.

A highly instructive commentary on social and economic conditions in Vienna is given by one of the latest issues of the well-known organ the fCeues ;Wiener Tagblatt.' ; A feature of the charitable organisations of the xlustrian capital has always been the work undertaken by the Committee for the Feeding of-Poor Children, which has just presented its report on its activities during the firstyear of the war. The following account is summarised from the lengthy. report, of the proceedings appearing iv thfi Neves Wiener Tagblatt : — ' ' ■ In the first half of the year 1914— that is to say, before iha war began— the committee served, on an ' average, 1500 meals a day. As noon as the war broke out the Burgomaster, Dr. VVeiskirchner, had several consultations with members of the committee in view of tindistress which it was feared would ht brought about; and the. resuLt was a carefully-considered plan by which the scope of the committee's work was con siderably extended. Withr thef aid of the City Magistrates and4he educational authorities, it was found possible! to opei. a number of branch supply department in the poorer districts of Vienh'a: an' within a few week 6of the outbreak '• hostilities, when the collaboration ( other charitable bodies had been'secure the extended operations of the coninn tee were in full swing. No fcw,er th; seven new kitchens, had to be arrant: for in ; various quarters of the'eapi: in addition to the shops and schools f; which meals were served. • ■_> From 1500 meals served daily 1." the war, the figure rose steadily-to tin 'c. five six. <^igiit. .twelve, and fifteen th jand. In October of the present jaa. 480,000. meals were distributed ; and -1; figure fov November is estimated more than-half a million —a new, aw ug-; of 17.000 a day. . Altogethei m6fc thfoiir million meals were given out in firsi twt-lve months of the war. The Neiw Wiener Tagblatt add? t it Js impossible to imagine' wliai poorer families in-. Vienna would In. done without the efforts of the com:): tee, and expir-sses the hope., that- ;; organisation, "which is carrying out sociai. dut> nithei thati a. charitali work." will continue its labours aft.l tilt; war. .'■"'. ■