TERMS TO AUSTRIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17254, 2 September 1919, Page 7

TERMS TO AUSTRIA.

PRESENTATION TO-DAY.

NO UNION WITH GERMANY.

LIGHTENING HER BURDENS.

By Telegraph—Press Association— (Received 10 p.m.) A. and N.Z. PARIS, Sept. 1. The Austrian peace delegates will receive the revised treaty to-mor-row. They will be given five days to consider it and three days' grace to accept or reject it. The treaty includes a clause forbidding Austria to unite with Germany without permission of the League of Nations, or to allow pan-German propaganda on Austrian soil.

A covering letter rejects the contention of Austria that she is entitled to the same exemption from war penalties as other constituents of her dismembered empire, but recognises that in view of Austria's impaired resources the burdens to be placed on her cannot be heavy.

An Australian press correspondent, who is studying the after-war conditions in Central Europe, sends from Vienna and Buda Pesth a graphic picture of the industrial stagnation and physical and mental depression of the semi-starved peoples. He says :— It would be a magniiicent thing could Australia share the enorts, whicn America leads, for relieving the terrible misery and destitution. J.he Americans have contributed 15,000,000 dollars in order to save the children of Austria, Hungary, Roumama, Czochc-Slovakia, Jugoslavia, Poland, and Finland. This money will suffice until midwinter, but the necessity for help will continue much longer. There are 2u0,1K/0 children to be fed in Austria, and the supply is meeting the merest particle of the existing needs. "The American helpers are splendidly active. No wonder the Americans everywhere are making inroads upon the affections of Europe. The famous Belvedere and Schonbrun palaces at Vienna are converted into kitchens, at which the workers and the children are given a meal daily, while the children of the official class feed among the poorest of the city at the Eugen Palace. Rickets are prevalent, owing to malnutrition, but the doctors say that the American help was given just in time to prevent permanent injury to the children of all classes.

" Vienna's unemployed number 140,000, and their dependants 40u,000. The distress is increasing, as the absence of coal and raw materials paralyses the factories. The people live partly by barter, gradually parting with their stock-in-trade. The depreciation of ihe currency has impoverished everybody. The krone (formerly worth lOdl is worth under 2d in English money. ' I've never had more money in my life, yet I've never been so poor. Every I want is out of reach,' said a prominent resident. " Miss Schalek, a traveller and author, visited Austria in 1918, and said that the people were dazed with their misfortunes and uncertainties of the outlook. ' They go to music in order to bury their sorrows.' The people show a pathetic eagerness to win back the friendship of the British."