MAKING AUSTRIANS GIVE UP STOLEN TREASURES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14937, 16 June 1919, Page 7

MAKING AUSTRIANS GIVE UP STOLEN TREASURES.

ROME, March 6.— Methods .adopted by General Segve, commanding tha Italian Commission m Vienna, might furnish a pattern for the Allies m the recovery of property looted by the Central* Empires. -General":.. -Sogre • learned the names of many valuable pictures, statuary and- other treasures belonging of right to Italy , but: held m Vienna and other parts of Austria, and he made it his business to locate them. With soldierly directness, unhampered by diplomatic correspondence, General Segre has been demanding the return of such property. At the outset, especially when he called for a painting by Raphael which was looted from Mod ena sixty years ■ ago, the Austrians met him with polite prevarication, at first pleading ignorance of the whereabouts of the treasure, and finally admitting that it was the private property of Emperor Charles. But the. Austrian authorities did not know the man with whom they were dealing. One morning General Segre, with a couple of Adjutants, a small guard and several motor lorries, appeared at Schoenbrunn Palace, and remarked that he had come for the property and would wait until he got it, He had not long to wait. • Since then he has recovered for Italy much property of intrinsic and historic value, includingall the treasures which the Austrians removed from, the Trieste bank during the war. . He met with considerable suave opposition m respect to the : delivery. -of 132 locomotives and 2,400 pieces of rolling as provided m the armistice terms -which the Austrians hrtd been eager to sign. The authorities made all sorts of excuses for non-delivory, whereupon General Segre curtly "informed them that he would reduce the number of trains which carry food to Vienna, the food .being furnished by Italy and the other Allies. President Soitz of the German-Aus-trian Assembly-; said such barbaric measures \yould provoke I'evolutinn, and further delay was sought by the authorities by means' of appeals to the British and' French missions m Vienna. Herr Seitz and his colleagues also said they washed their hands of all responsibility for the riots- that would surely result. ' Knowing the bitter experiences suffered by nis country through- Austrian mendacity, General Segre ignored the threat and was proceedinrr to put into effect his words when the Austrians gave m, and have since been busy m passing over the fctimnlated rolling stock to the Italians at Innsbruck. General Segre responded by letting the food trains pass, and he' has arranc-ed that four Italian food' trains reach. Vienna daily, m addition to those sent from other sources. So, with good management, Vienna's hungry days aro over. 1 ~MMMH--____M_-_>_PW-_M_B-_I_B