FAMINE IN AUSTRIA

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 261, 23 July 1918, Page 7

FAMINE IN AUSTRIA

SCENES OF AN IMPERIAL TOUR, Somo terrible pictures of t.ho suffering of the working classes in Bohemia are drawn by a correspondent of the Vienna Socialist "Arbeiter-Zeitung," who accompanied the Emperor of Austria on a tour through these districts. Everywhere the Emperor was met by deputations who described to him the dreadful scarcity of food and the lranßcr and starvation suffered by the population. In the Warnsdorf district one speaker described how women travelled for miles to obtain potato and grain, often in exchange for articles of clotnino;. When they arrived back at their railway stations, however, it was generally all taken from them bv the police. 'In another district, Rumburg, a reprc sentative said to tho Emperor.— "Tho people have now received no baking flour for five weeks, and have to be contenjt with MOcwt., which means ono loaf .per week. For during the last two months there have been no potatoes in any of (heir homes. In February the fat tickets fell into disuse because no fats arrived. In addition they receive irregularly only 12 kilogrammes (about 2Mb.) of coal per week, and so had to freeze in addition to starving." In another district, Schluckenau, a deputy 6aid:— "Last week, after a long period, wo obtained a whole loaf each, but nothing else has arrived. Tho supplies are very 6mall. In February, for example, we got only Jkilo (lib.)' of flour, and in March 1-6 kilo. (t-31b.) ouly. We received half a loaf, then a quarter, and finally only an eighth of a loaf per week. There aro no potatoes to bn got. We havo been getting l-Bkilo. (ilb.) of meat for tho last six weeks, and as for fat, wo never seo any." The man went on to say that 50 per cent of the population was underfed, and a largo portion totally unfit for work. There was a great deal of hunger-typhus and consumption. The Emperor gave fitting expression to his horror, and promised to do all ho could to relieve the conditions.