HUNGRY VIENNA

Thames Star, Volume LII, Issue 13967, 18 August 1919, Page 1

HUNGRY VIENNA

„■* . ■ - CITY ON LOW DIET. In his comments on the food situaticnn in Vienna, Mr. Oliver Madox Huieffer expresses surprise that there are people in England i who cannot understand "why Central j Europe shows a tendency to go Bolshevik. "I only wash I could ask these .people, to breakfast with me in, Viepna," he remarks. "I have jus!t. finished' breakfast (he writes), and the unpleasant . memory of it reminds me that there must he -a very great many people' ' in* England just now who have a very small idea of whalt a. Central European breakfast looks a,nd tastes like. "There is no milk, no sugar, no •butter, no salt. If I were a genuine Viennese there would be no • bread either, but as I am 'am. eccentric foreigner, I have -a j piece of bread. So far as I can ascertain, it weighs a few grammes over an ounce. It feels heavier and looks heavier. It is of a dirty brown colour, and' of a semi-liquid consistency. If I lift it about a foot in the air and drop iit on the table it makes a feeble effort ta bounce, .and then sags out softly all round, like inddarubber with the elasticity left out. "Having got through the morning I begin 'to think not unpleasantly of lunch. Relying on ,nny wealth, I select a fashionable -restaurant. I have no bread, because I ate my full share of .bread at breakfast. My lunch consists of "'lentil scaup—.a thick .soup, and 1 really' pleasant to the taste, though not altogether satisfying. It is fallowed, by "Amei rjikaniscihe IPuok&l'ne>isch," > which i® salt pork. . I should estimate it &t about two ounces. It is' not very nice, but it is "really a very wonderl t\i[ two ounces of meat, for it alone has prevented Vienna 'going Bolshevik any time this last fortnight; I mean, that iti represents one man's share of the twelve Entente food trains a day which are coming into Vienna* Without it Vienna, "would starv© to death in a week, and 1 as ■ Vienna Knows ft, and know® that the Entente does not like Bolshevism, and would stop the food trains if Vienna turned Bolshevik, Vienna does not turni Bolshevik. ;. A THIRTY SHILLING LUNCH. ; "That is my liupch, and the cost of it, including half a. bo'ttlei of rather good red' wine and a cuip of , ■'ErsatzlktO'ffe' j —made, of acorns., mixed with the dried liven, of a horse that must have worked hard in> its time—is 38 kronen. To a wealthy foreigner like myself this only means a little over 9s, but to the real Viennese a. krone is still worth 10d, and his. launch :would have .cost j him well over 30s. | "I have seen: eggs, four or five times, but never costing less, than three crowns', or marks, apiece. I have seen, a farmer's wife actually j burst into team with gratitude when. ' I gave her a piece of •soa,p. j "I have triedl to buy ia white , shirt in. Viepna, and have been askv 1. Ed l'6o cromn. s for one of the poor-' 1 est quality. I ha.ye seem in. fashionable 1 hotoit shops footwear 1 offered for sale at 60 and 80 crowns with wooden soles and uppers , made of .some kind of paper. [ "And before I left England 1 I was quite inclined to agree with the . people who isaid that the Central European ;pleas of. scarcity, were-, no 1 moirel than- bftiiff. masking heaven "■> knows what devilish designs' of a: 1 military come-back, Afcbd I hear \ there are people ip\ .; England who -cannot understand why Central r Efurope shows a tendency to :go Bolshevik." V