NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16166, 21 March 1918, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE VIENNA STRIKE. For the second time in less than two months Vienna has been the scene of a great strike, and in the interval bo'tween the two., Berlin and numerous other towns in Germany have suffered the same experience. These disturbances, which in each case have ■ been on a gigantic were, quite apart from tho numbers concerned in thjjm, of a much more serious character, to tho Governments affected, than the occasional brief strikes for higher wages which have occurred in Britain during the war. The strike which began in a town near Vienna towards the end of January, and spread to the capital, and thence throughout the country, was apparently of a combined political and economic movement, extremely anti-German in character, and specially aimed at securing peace: There is an extremely strong and widely • held opinion in Austria-Hungary tnat the ~ Dual Empire is being exploited by Germany for the latter's own military advantage. The nation is very badly off ■for food. There is not a super-abund-ance of it in Great Britain, but there is no starvation, and the average British worker's daily rations would be ' a banquet to tho average Austrian. For all his troubles, dietary and other--1 wise, the Vienna worker is apt to blame the German Kaiser, henco his demand for peace, and a voice in the peace negotiations. At its height the strike in Austria-Hungary is believed to have been participated in by a million men and women, and to have spread to every part of the Empire. All the munition works and factories were compelled to close, tradesmenshut' up their shops, and joined the strikers, and no papers ,were printed in Vienna for three days. At the end of that time, having made their protest, the strikers went hack to work. A few davs later Germany was reported to bir in the throes of a great

labour upheaval, due to the dissatisfaction felt by the workers and others with the progress of tho peace, negotiations, and with political conditions genIti" Berlin alone nearly a half-million persons wore stated to be on strike, and in Kiel, the groat shipyard centre, at the Hamburg Iron "Works, any m the Rhenish "Westphalian mine region, workers threw down their tools and left their jobs. The strike at Adlersbof, a Berlin suburb, affected one of the important centres of the German military airplane and balloon industry. Spandau, whither tho strike spread, is the site of ono of Germany's big arsenals, and a centre for the manufacture of ammunition, as well as of electrical plants devoted to war work. Both Spandau and Adlershof differ from_ the usual German industrial centres, in that huge numbers of men of military age, skilled workmen exempted from military service because of their greater value in war plants, are employed there, rather than the women and j-ouths, who make up a high proportion of Germany's industrial army in war-time. POLITICAL CAUSES OF DISCONTENT. Here again the strike was protest against both political and economic concitions. Tho •Uemand for a peace ' without annexations and indemnities'' —on which the terms imposed by Germany on Russia and Rouniania are a forciblo commentary—was only one of the features of the ultimatum addressed to the Government, which included the amelioration of the food situation by better distribution, tho restoration of the right_ of public meeting, tho release of political prisoners, and the institution of equal electoral suffrage by direct secret ballot The way in winch franchise reform has been handled by the Government has been a source of great irritation, and this has not been allayed by tho tactics of the Pan-German "Fatherland Party." It was suggested that tho outside world would have heard a good deal less about the strike if the authorities had not liecn quite willing that tho Allies should be led to believe that matters were much worse tliau they really were; indeed, it was assorted bv some correspondents in Holland that'the strike news was purposely exaggerated with that object. "Whether thero was anything in this allegation it is impossible to 6ay, but there is. no doubt of the seriousness'of the strike. That was evidenced by the means taken to break it down —a threat to try hy court-martial all who did not at once resume woik. ofThe latest strike at \ lenna and Budapest is a proof j however, that the causes of discontent arc as acuto as ever. They will remain so until tho Governments of Germany and Austria-Hungary satisfy the legitimate political aspirations of the people, and allow them the same voice in national affairs that the democracies of the Allies possess.

NO DEALINGS WITH THE ENEMY. The cable from Mr Gompers, President of the American Federation oj 'Labour, to Mr Arthur Henderson and M. Albert Thomas, regarding the attitude of American Labour towards the International Labour Conference m London last month, is said, in Tuesday's cables, to have been sent m view of til© misunderstanding, by Labour m Britain and Franco of a previous mossage bv Mr Gompers, iu which li© declined to send American representatives to the Conference. If the latter message was the one sent early m January to Mr Appleton, general secretary of the General Federation of British Trade Unions, we confess that wc do not seo liow it could have been misunderstood. It was about as clear and definite a statement of policy, and of tlio reasons on which that policy was based, as could well be imagined. After pointing out that the declared attitude of British Labour was identical >vith that of the American Federation! and that Mi 1 Lloyd George and President "Wilson were in accord upon the vital issues and aims of ihe war, Sir Gompers continued: — "If'any call should be issued for an International Conference of workers of all countries of the world, the American Federation of Labour will not participate. The people of Germany must establish democracy within their own domains - , and make opportunity for international relations, so that life shall be securod, and so that the people of all countries may live their own lives and work ous their own salvation. Unless this has been accomplished by the German people themselves, the Allied' democracies in this struggle must crush militarism and autocracy, and bring a new freedom to the whole world, the peoplo of Germany included. Until those essentials are accomplished, an International Labour Conference with the representatives ■ of all countries, Germany included, is prejudicial to a desirable and lasting peace." Mr Apnleton replied that the British General federation of Trade Unions had "never wavered on the question of Labour Conferences with belligerent countries." But on that point not all British Labour leaders are agreed. It ■was only the determined action of the Seamen's Union that prevented Mr Ramsay Macdonald from sitting down in conference with the representatives of enemy countries, and Mr Arthur Henderson, we imagine, still looks with a favouring eye on "internationalism."

THE BEST AGE FOR AIRMANSHIP. It had become so much an accepted fact that a good airman must be young that the recent action of the liritisn military authorities in extending the age-limit for aviators from 2o to SO h»6 no doubt surprised a good many people. "It's boys ot nineteen and twenty who are winning the war in the air lor its on the "Western front,".-a flying officer who recently returned from Franco is reported to have said. "'lt's a case of being too old at twenty-five." His statement was corroborated by the British Commander-in-Chief himself. 'This is a war of youth." said Sir Douglas Haig. "it takes youth to win. Would you cnooso men of forty to play a championship football game? "War is more strenuous than the fiercest football game." Tho evcr-increasing strain on the nerves of the pilot due to the increasing demands of warfare on the "Western front, were asserted by ono writer on the subject to break up a man the quicker when once he is out of his teens, while another bar against older men, it was said, is that smashes toll more upon the older than upon the younger man. Undoubtedly much of the most brilliant work in the air has been dono by mere lads, whose amazing feats seemed to demand for their successful performance the dash and vigour and the indifference to personal danger that belongs to youth. Mr C. G. Grey, the editor of the "Aeroplane," whose expert knowledge of aviation secured his exemption from service, has something to say, however, in a recent article in favour of the older man. Those in high placcs, ho admits, believe 2*3 to be about the top limit for men to learn to fly, but, he snj's, there are exceptions who fir as keenly as ever, and perhaps more wisely. when nearer '■]'> than 25. '-'Some men flv well at -40, but by that time their flighting days may be considered as over, for they have lost the quick hand and eye of youth, even if *hey have gained wisdom and experience. From 19 io 2o is undoubtedly the age for the genuine Hnn-strafer of the air. and perhaps from 23 to 30 is the period when the best headwork is done in the way of intelligent reconnaissance, clever photography, and other jobs requiring brains rather than the recklcss daring of extreme youth."