AUSTRIA'S PLIGHT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11509, 4 October 1915, Page 7

AUSTRIA'S PLIGHT.

CHAOTIC CONDITIONS. GERMAN DOMINATION. | By Telegraph.—Press Asr.ociation.—Copyright BERNE, October 3. Travellers describe the condition of Vienna as chaotic. German officials are endeavouring to dominate everything and havo assumed the entire censorship of tho Press. The newspapers are appearing with whole pages almost blank.

Numerous political arrests havo been made, and tho prisons are overflowing. Tho financial .situation is deplorable. The Viennese exchange with Switzerland is unpreccdentedly low.

CITY OF FEAR

.VON-}TEAT DAYS. Yienua poems to feel the pinch oi war lnoro than any Europeau capital I visited, writes a correspondent of the " Dajl.y Express.'' I/omjon, Paris, Berlin, and tiven Constantinople, manage to give tho outsider an impression that fche war has had littlo effect on normal life. Vienna, on tho contrary, makes 0110 feel instantly that Lho conditions under which the population ai'o living at present are painfully abnormal. Bread conditions, for instance, are of an alarming nature. Bread is very scarce. It is also extremely bad. Tito '• Kricg-sbrot: " (war-bread) of Germany is cake compared to tho awful stuff the Vienna people get for bread. It looks and tastes us much like the staff of life as rabbit does, and certainly does not deservo its name. Tho bread of Vienna is far worse than that of Hungary, whore one can even get the white loaf occasionally. This seems to indicate a lack of harmony between the two "united" countries. Other food has risen enormously in price.ABNORMAL PRICES. Beef costs 2s 6d per lb, and that not first-class meat. Butter is absolutely unobtainable for tho ordinary purs©. Other .necessities of life have undergone a corresponding increase. I often asked myself how large families with'small incomes can get along witli tho,so abnormal rises in food prices combined with the'scarcity of bread. The city is still full of refugees from Galicia. Tho majority are poor Jews, who with their long coats, curious hats, T-nd lon<*. boards give a peculiar aspect to tho streets of tho Austrian capital. You notice them everywhere. The great invasion of refugees of all types, many of whom have been living under very unhygienic conditions, lias had another unpleasant consequence. Typhus and other diseases avo spreading .rapidly, and the Government has had to take serious measures. At the corner of every street largo placards arc posted, warning the citizens to oxercisa great care in the reception of war refugees and urging them to wear little camphor sacks next to tho skin, to avoid fleas which may transmit disease. All curtains havo been removed from the t-raincars for tlio samo reason. Second-class railway fares have been abolished, and tho carriages removed from the trains as far as local traffic is concerned. There are at present only third-class and first-class, and you must remember that third-class oxi tho Continent means nothing; more than bare wood. Even iii the first-class carriages all curtains havo been removed. FAST MYS. These measures indicate the extreme nature of the situation in Vienna. Cm account of food shortage, the sale of meat has been prohibited on Tuesdays and Fridays. Fish is so scarce sad expensive that people have no choice except to be vegetarians two days in every week. When I _ left Vienna, tho authorities were considering; the advisability of adding one mere day a week to tho two on which the sale of meat is prohibited. Taxi-cabs are few in number, when you remember that Vienna is the fourth city of Europe in size and population. The few which aro still running charge extra night fares, not the ordinary tariff. Prices in all hotels have been augmented by one-fifth. I hanperied to be in Vienna (on my way to Constantinople) when Premsyl was retaken by the Ausi ro-German army. The joy of the population was extraordinary." Tho many famous cafes of Vienna were full once more. Absolute strangers kissed each other in the streets. Flags were flying on most of the private houses and on all the public buildings. Traffic in tho main streets was sometimes held up for an hour to let the countless processions pass, especially in the Everybody seemed to be mad with joy. PREMATURE JOY. In my hotel the proprietor offered a complimentary dinner to all the guests. Vienna .seemed, to ho convinced that tiio Russian peril lutd disappeared, and I everybody was breathing freely once ! ogaik * . , I Next morning a military paraclo was | held in honour of the victory. About [ seven or eig'ht thousand men paraded j along tho famous Rings (Vienna boulei yards) and passed tho new "NVar Office, an enormous building. At the head of tho troops marched a lew hundred j slightly wounded soldiers. The enthusiasm of the crowd reached its height. Flowers were thrown on tho men, i some ladies ventured to .go among tnuni ! and kissed the bearded sons of flat's, i Tho few regiments I saw consisted mainly of reseives (Landstum men), and 1 noticed scarcely on© young man. Their equip nt was not of the latest pattern, and tho difference betwoen a German and an Austrian regiment en parade is most striking. At the Bam© time I do not want to say that Austria, is exhausted oi men. There are still thousands who do not yet wear the Uniterm to be seen in the streets of Vienna. Before tho recapture of Przemysl the police had to lie increased considerably as tiie poorer classes in the capital showed sign-! of uneasiness. .1 have never been, m a eity_ where there are tnich numbers of policemen as in Vienmi. Every street comer has its pel iceman. Monntwl police patrol every quarter of the city day and night. With their long cavalry swords and their revolvers at. their side they made me, as a stranger, feel as if a revolution were pending.