THE KRONEN UNCROWNED

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16905, 2 December 1922, Page 21

THE KRONEN UNCROWNED

AUSTRIA’S USELESS PAPER MONEY. (Vienna Correspondent. “ New York Tribune.”) ‘•'Crowns, crowns, who wants Austrian crowns? A penny for ten. a penny for fifty, a penny for a hundred. penny for two hundred ! A\ ho wants Austrian crowns. Of course, nobody wan Us Austrian cj owns, because the weight of the paper money is greater than the veight rA the food that can be bought with it. So discredited has the money become that the other day. in passing through a village in the Tyrol, I found a twenty-kronen note that had been scorned by some threadbare children playing near by. And vet the people are far from being calm about the tremendous acrobatic antics of the exchange in the last few months. From newspaper edit ors in the big cities to the smallest shopkeeper in the most distant mountain towns the hysteria is gaining daily. “ We are getting to be like Russia.” tl:cv crv. “ Our money is worth less than nothing. Any foreigner can. buy up our whole country, and we can hardly afford to buy a pound of lard from him.” And this complaint seems thoroughly justifiable when you consider that within the space of one week the crown fell from 11.700 to the dollar to 21.700 to the dollar. TALK OF REVOLUTION. On the receipt of this news there was immediate talk of revolution all over the country. It was spoken of rather drearily, however, for every man knew that the problem could not be solved in that way. In the first place, Austria is so far from being self-supporting that she must, for a while at least, be almost entirely supported by the capital of other In the second place, every fiervtongued orator knows that a revol.i tion would involve#immediate occupation by Allied armies. The rumour of revolution passed quickly, to be supplanted by far more astonishing news. W© were told in i confidence that there Y as a strong movement in favour of uniting with Italy. Austria, the age-long enemy and one time mistress of half the Italian peninsula, uniting with Italy ! Districted hotel kepers in the Tyrol c xpost ilia ted. w ikl Iv. ** Wo are going to ruin in this country! Our money is worth nothing here in Austria or abroad. We must unite with some country. France will not permit us to unite with Germany. She will not even permit us to ally ourselves with the Little Entente of Control Europe. Switzerland does not vi-.li to take us over. Therefore our only logical step is to unite with Italy. The Tyrol at least must do this. We must unite with Italy!” RUMOUR FROM THE TYHOI. And there come stories of how there is ;j band in Innsbruck (the capital of the Tyrol and the second largest city in Austria) readv to run up the Italian flag at any moment and declare tl.e-ir independence of Austria; of how there are Italian soldiers on the border prepared to break across into the Ty-ro’-at a moment’s notice and patrol the new adjunct of Greater Italy; of how the question of bread and butler has succeeded in overwhelming all questions of an independent nationality in the ruins of a great European empire. To all this the government in Vienna has demurred mildly. There Fas been talk of strenuous measures to offset the talk of revolution ; there has been a demission of the old ministry and the formation of a new ministry; and finally there has been tjdk of a reconstruction of the country’s finances. In the meantime the situation has its amusing aspects. Far from having an impoverished appearance, business seems to be flourishing as it never did before. In the early part of Juno the country already crowded with tourists of all nations—English, of course, ns always, in Innsbruck: large numbers of Germans, who find Austria about tlie only country they can travel in; a great many Frenchmen, and growing numbers of Americans. WHEN THE KRONEN DEPRECIATES. The shops are crowded—with every-, thing except stocks. If the exchange falls a few thousand against the kronen lines form to the right outside of all the plate glass windows and passage becomes difficult through the streets la the meantime purchasers who have succeeded in making their way within the shops discover that prices have jumped 20 or JO or 50 per cent over the prices of the day before. If there i; a good sized drop in the exchange the shopkeepers are not too modest to raise the price of their articles 100 per cent. Everyone is in a fever to turn kronen into goods, since the money seems to have no semblance of stability. Do you have any kronen)'” you are asked when you settle down anywhere. “If you have, hurry to town ancl buy yourself a .suit of clothes, because to-morrow you may not be able to buy yourself a meal with the money.” There are more millionaires in Austria than in any country in the world, as any foreigner who arrives here with with little more than 500 dollars in his pocket immediately takes that rank. As for the smaller currency anything tinder 100 kronen (less than a cent) —is usually guarded as a curiosity, to be collected along with strange looking stamps and coins of all nations for the. small brothers at home.