CONDITIONS NAUSTROHUNGARY.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15133, 30 January 1917, Page 2

CONDITIONS NAUSTROHUNGARY.

X FAMINE IN SIGHT. GROWING DESPERATION' OF .WOMEN. (Australian and N.Z. Gable Association.) LONDON,. January 29. The Morning Post’s Buda Pest correspondent says the latest feature of the food crisis IS' the growing desperation of women who are unable to provide their children with the bare necessaries of life. Many am.- absolutely without coal, petroleum, wood or milk. Prices in many cases have risen from 300 to 1000 per cent, while the stock ox rice in the country is fifty waggon loads. Beef is costing 10s per kilogramme, fat: 7a 9d per kilogramme and butter 10s Bd. New vegetables cannot be expected before July. Unless a miracle happens, famine in its worst form is inevitable. The fixing of maximum prices resulted in holding up stocks and has thus far caused greater scarcity. Some relief is being afforded by pig slaughtering. The richer Buda Pest families bought xip thousands of small pigs in the spring, and had them fed in the country, thus receiving considerable supplies pf pork and fat. This wholesale slaughter is going on because the Government prohibits the use of make for fodder. It is possible to restrict the feeding of a few thousands in a besieged city, but 120miliona are not easily managed".' Hundreds of thousands of Socialists and other disaffected elements must be reckoned with, while millions of women, hero aved and poverty-stricken, are posses-' sed of a single thought—how to feed their children. It is impossible to reason with them on political or patriotic grounds. The next few months will reveal the strength of millions of uninstructed desperate women, who have given their sons and husbands to the war, but upw find they'can endure the misery no longer. PEACE DESIRED ON ANY TERMS. STOCKHOLM, January 28. Dmitre Jantcheevetsky, the Russian publicist, has been released after thirty nonths’ imprisonment in Austria. Ho states that there is a universal desire for 1 peace on almost any terms. AustroHungary—particularly among the Slava and Magyars—-has no feeling of bitterness against the Entente. The Emperor and Empress and court are endeavouring to secure independence from Germany. The food supply is relatively good in the north, but actual hunger prevails in the south of Hungary. In southern Slav states, desertions owing to underfeeding have increased threefold during six months.