A PEEP INTO AUSTRIA

Evening Star, Issue 16627, 9 January 1918, Page 3

A PEEP INTO AUSTRIA

STATE OF SEMI-STARVATION. To the keen, observer there are many curious and interesting differences which show how deeply tbe stupendous war has affected tho Austrian capital, Vienna, which has always had the reputation uf being one of the gayest and most light-hearted cities in Europe, writes a correspondent of the ' Manchester Guardian.' The question whioh touches tho whole population from the highest to the lowest most nearly is that oi tho food supply. The state of serai-starvation at which the poorer classes have now arrived has come on so ally, and lias been marked by such distinct stages, that they 'have almost come to regard it as natural, and have ceased to wonder at it. They suffer most severely from lack of fat in every form. Tho breW .with which the people due supplied lias gono through many stages; there was a time when it waa made almost entirely of maize flour; then tho maizegave out, and barley was chiefly used: isince April of 191*7 it Las consisted chiefly of bran, horse-ohesfcnut*, and dried beans, with hj small percentage of musty fiour. Each .person gets 18 dekagrams (about 6oz), and the control is very strict. This amount is quite insufficient. for the~ wanking classes, since they have nothing else to tako its place; : potatoes were hardly ever- to be seen ; dried peas, beans, lentils, rice, and sago havo long since disappeared from general consumption; vegetables are scarce and enormously dear, and meat is only to bo obtained at high prices and-after lonjr waiting. Tho principal articles of food for the people are a coarse kind of sausage, lights, horseflesh.' such odds and ends of vegetables as they can manage to get hold of, and thoir portion of bread and flour or oatmeal. Coffee is no longer sold. One can only get tho " war-mixture," which consists of burnt barley, sugar, and a little inferior coffee or chicory For real coffee, which can sometimes be got irregularly, people pay as much as 80kron.-u (about £l> 10s a kilogram (21b). Milk is very scarce, and kept chiefly for children and sick persons.; butter is strictly rationed—six dekagrams a week for each person; eggs are almost \mobtainable, and one 'gladly gives 7d for one; and ham lias disappeared from view since before Easter. Tea costs anything from 40 to 80 kronen a kilogram (a crown is about lOd), and one can only get five dekagrams at a time. Boilsd sweets, which to some extent take .i)he place of sugar, are sold in small quantities once or twice a. week, and people stand in long queues several hours to obtain them. CURTAINS MADE INTO DRESSES. Business, politics, and even the war have almost ceased to be discussed much in public; the great and burning topic in the trams, in tho cafes, in streets, everywhere where people come together, is the price of food, which shops have supplies of this or that, which restaurants give the largest portions, when and where soap, candles, chocolate, petroleum, or other much-coveted articles can be obtained. Clothing, and all the little necessaries of daily use in connection with clothes havo become enormously dear. A pair of shoelaces costs Is, and a spool of sowing cotton about the same. Linen goods are so costly that two ladies of the writer's acquaintances havo been wearing " their own dining room curtains made up into costumes." Ladies can only buy one pair of stockings at a time; woollen dress materials cost anything from £1 to £4 a meter; cottons aro somewhat cheaper, but the supply is very limited. For men's clothes there are, as yet, no owds as in Germany, but it is difficult to obtain a sufficient supply of anything. Most of the children of the working classes are wearing wooden sandals, for the soling ot a pah- of shoes costs about £l, and genuine leather can oidy be obtained from the military authorities.