THE AUSTRIAN CRISIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1712, 31 December 1919, Page 5

THE AUSTRIAN CRISIS.

A DESPERATE STATE OF AFFAIRS. By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Australian-New Zealand Cable Association ■ _ LONDON, Dec, 29, . The Daily Chronicle’s Vienna correspondent stales that the crisis is daily becoming more serious. Passenger traffic on the railways is suspended (or a fortnight, owing to the lack of coal,, and snow storms are blocking the goods traffic. The country is manufacturing practically nothing, and the peasants are charging enormous prices for food. They hoard the notes received in payment, instead of banking them, so the Government is forced continually to print fresh-currency. It is feared that the peasants will shortly refuse to deliver foods, saying that they have enough notes. A hundred kroner formerly was worth eighty shillings, and it is now worth five shillings. A man’s suit, which previously cost eighty kronor, is now sold lor three thousand. An ordinary meal costs from thirty to fifty kroner.' Skilled mechanics are now receiving a thousand kroner monthly, while previously they were paid 120. The majority of other workers are faring worse than the porest beggars.