AUSTRIA'S TROUBLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3312, 5 September 1917, Page 19

AUSTRIA'S TROUBLES.

It is reported that there are serious revolts in Southern. Austria, Eastern Hungary, Bohemia, and Transylvania. No news has been received from these regions for some days, but it is known that train loads of soldiers have been sent to suppress tho disorders, which are mostly due to a poor harvest; but the Bohemian dieorders are political. The New York Times Paris correspondent says that advices from Switzerland stato that Austria is bordering on a panic. The "Vienna newspapers are barely venturing to discuss the military situation. There are serious internal troubles in Bohemia and Transylvania, and_ the failure of the peace manoeuvre is a terrible blow. Berne is becoming a centre of Austrian intrigue, much of which is pro-Ally. The Arbeiter Zeitung (Vienna) reports that the Ringhoffer Metal Works were idle for a week owing to 4000 employees striking. The military introduced 300 skilled men as strike-breakers, and work has since been resumed. The Austrian Budget for 1916-17 shows a deficit of 3.344,000.000 crowns (about £140,000.000), compared 49,000,000 for 1915-16. Two of the heaviest items of expenditure are 1,761,000.000 interest on war loans and 1,650,000,000 , for the support of soldiers' families. The special direct war expenditures are not included in tho Budget. THE GERMAN COLONIES. Herr Albert Ballin, managing director of the Hamburg-Amerika Company, publishes some important articles in the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, insisting on the absolute necessity for recovering the German colonies intact; also for rounding off those in Africa and considerably increasing those in the Pacific. Herr Ballin points out that the Mittel Europa schemes are inadequate to provide the raw materials vital to Germany's industries; therefore countries producing cotton, coffee, jute, rubber, and other products must be under Gorman control; otherwise the German Empire will be under the heel of England and the United States.

Admiral von Crapon also insists on the necessity for tropical possessions and securing portions of the Belgian Congo. During the peace negotiations the German delegates must continually ask whether their colonies can supply the necessary rawmaterial, and are populated thickly enough to supply German planters and exploiters with the necessary labour. In these respects the coasts and islands of Eastern Asia would be particularly valuable. Admiral von Crapon adds that coaling stations and marine bases must also be secured. Germany's possessions in the South Seas must not only be restored, but several other groups must be secured, in view of future entanglements with Japan and the United States. Some of the permanent fleet —fast cruisers—must bo based in the South S-°as headquarters, and the fleet protected bv powerful fortifications. The German press is giving prominence to the fate of the German colonies. In connection therewith Herr ZJmmermann defines the war aims of the future, which should array Central and Pouth America against Anglo-Saxoniom. Therefore Germans not emigrating to German colonies should be made to emigrate to those regions instead of to Australasia, North America, and South Africa.

The Berliner Tageblatt emphasise*? the great value of New Guinea and Samoa to Germany whose natural outlet was through Turkey. Moreover, New Guinea and Samoa were easily defended by U boat bases. Then it concludes: "If at the outbreak of the war we knew what we know now we would certainly have had a greater number of U boats in the Paeifio, and things would have been very different."