GRIM OUTLOOK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22447, 30 September 1947, Page 3

GRIM OUTLOOK

FOOD PRODUCTION EUROPE DROUGHT & FIRE TOLL (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) LONDON, Sept-. 29. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Vienna says that the prolonged drought in Central Europe is expected to end soon. There have already been local rains. The damage caused is very great and makes the Tood 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 the lowest for 80 years and all major shipping movements have been halted. Big forest fires continue to burn in many districts. The drought damage in the Danube Basin luns into hundreds of millions sterling. The losses in Hungary alone since her liberation total about £140,000,000. . „ , . The harvests in Austria, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia suffered badly and winter sowings are jeopardised. Potato crops and (odder 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 the Government policies in the Central European States. For example a 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 bv the bad harvest caused by the drought. These countries will be more than ever dependent on food imports and those Governments which are Cdmmunist dominated will turn increasingly to the Soviet Union for supplies thus placing themselves still further in the Kremlin’s power._ As hardships grow there is increasing regret among rural communities that their Governments with the exception of Austria, have so savagely spurned the Marshall plan In Austria many factories remain closed because- of .lack of power. The fuel situation this winter may be as bad if not worse than last winter.