VIENNA'S PALACES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16350, 12 February 1921, Page 14

VIENNA'S PALACES.

NEW SOUP KITCHENS

Palaces in VHetin* built for princes are now toup IntHiens wnere the sons and daughters ot the kc«.geoisie receive their ffailv meal of American food (says inc " Art fod Tnbuue”). Schonlffrinn. once the tavoui ite. domicile the Empress Elizabeth ; Augartcn. where Km peror Charles the exiled monarch. spent, bis childhood, and Belvedere, one of the most beautiful of the royal homes m Kttrope, are now filled with Iho aroma ot good, oldfashioned stew. When the -■merican Relief Administration European Children's Fund, cf which Herbert Hoover is chairman, set about feeding the children of Central and Eastern Europe the most difficult problem was \ i.’nna. I lie children not only out mini tiered tile undernourished nail's in every other city in the hunger zone. Our, the degree of undcrnoilrishntent was such that heroic measures had to be adopted to save their lives. , , r ,

tneir uvea. , , . , Some idea of the number to be led may be gained from the fact that today. nearly Iwo nr* filter the cbildfeeding operations got. under way. the A Tt.A is still feeding 160.CCQ boys and girls’in tile Austrian, capital. | The children that fill the palace halls are not all ragged, dirty little beggars, bat many arc* the younger generation of the middle and professional classes. The other day a famous general, whose name would be familiar to Americans who kept in touch with the operations on the Italian front, appeared at the | Belvedere with bis "mail daughter. He courteously asked for a bowl of Tice i with condensed milk and waited while i the little girl ate it. ! Sons nad daughters of artists, writ- ! ers- musicians and professors are the I children who are bearing the brunt of post-war conditions, according to Ignntz | Panzer, of the New York Produce Fx- | change, who has just returned from ' Ati atria ! ’ Air Panzer said that the American food, designed only as » supplementary meal, had become the chief and_ only meal of a vei v largo number of A icon a children. A few will got chicory without milk or sugar with a small slice of bread for breakfast. The only other food they receive during the day 35 at the Hoover station. . Here is an average menu served in the palaces where rovaltv unco sat down to the fat of the land: Monday—bread, boiled rice with milk and sugar; Tuesday bread and vegetable soup ; M cdJ nesdav—milk noodles yth cocoa : Thursday—dumplings with bean salad : I Fridnv- rice sou,, with bread; Saturi dav cake with cocoa. . [ Each day's ration has the same foot value- In everv kitolien the cookmc is scientifically done. All the ingro dients are carefully weighed and pie pared. Each piece of bread is wrigbot and each plate of soup is measured ii a ladle, so thfcifc no child gets even i spoonful more than his playmate. Athe end of sixtv days bf this feedinf the children are weighed. And so grea is the number of under nourished chil dren that those registering a norma condition must be dropped. “An occasional visitor passing through Vienna, would not notice th< misery that exists .just below the stir face of things,” said Mr Panzer. O ‘ course, the crowds are gone. Vienna to those who knew the city m tin oirl dav?. is like a cemetery strange!.' c,u.et and unreal. TJie restaurant: are open and you can get. good tooc tor what seems a small sum in Amen can money, but the average Amerioai does not take into consideration tha’ these prices represent enormous sum: in the currency of the country. “It is only after .getting out mb the residential sections ol Ihe cl .V visiting the schools and the food kit chens.; that you can understaml^h on P qucst!oninE the children about ihci ages, at the effect these years o hunger had on their growth and de volopment. One small bov I though was six was really thirteen years old Vet without American food these clnl dren. dwarfed and stunted as they ar physically and mentally, would be dea “ A surprising thing to me was th ' fact that girls show more resistanc : in fighting malnutrition than hoy; ' Phvsicians have found that a. girl ca ' go'longer on less food with less seriou results than a hoy of the same age ' Contrary to the general belief, babie ; j are not,'the worst sufferers m Austria 1 ! T found, that the children most affecte 5 by starvation were the hoys and girl between six and fourteen years of age. F Herbert, Hoover is again ehainpior 1 ing the cause of destitute and orphane children of Austria, Czecho-Blovakic f Poland and the Baltic States. Aftc 3 the investigation made following th - 1920 harvest it. was found that A meric 3 must send more food this winter - two and a half million hoys and gir v were not to starve. Mr Hoover ests mates that 23.000,000 dollars will kre b these children alive until August. 102