AUSTRIA'S PLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume XCVIII, Issue 38, 14 August 1919, Page 3

AUSTRIA'S PLIGHT

WELLINGTON SOLDIER'S OBSERx VATIONS..

An interesting account of experiences in Austria is given by Mr. Frank Levin, of Tinakori-road, Wellington, who served as a sergeant in the New Zealand Field Artillery. During his leave he journeyed to Italy and also visited the Austro-Italian battlefields of the Piave, Carso, and Asiago. ' Concerning Austria's plight he says:—"Having at last penetrated well into central Austria, after the most cheerless 'and slow train journey that could he possibly attempted, I offered my temporary assistance to one of the many excellent Allied Red Cross Commissions—American I think it was—and then our relief train started off, its merciful purpose being to assist the distracted and hungry populace. As our train struggled on laboriously across the great length. of Austrian territory, stopping occasionally for a few hours in somo of the more important towns," we realised their plight more fully than ever by .the pictures of poverty seen in succession,. each an eloquent reminder of what-these people have had to endure during the earlier periods of the war.' Everything had fallen into almost horrifying disrepair, esren the trains in which we travelled were entirely without windows or lighting of any kind. Poverty and hunger confronted one at every turn. Worst of all the people seemed to have surrendered all hope; all ambition, and lost in miasma of inaction and despair, and appeared merely to be waiting for their destiny, whatever it. might, be, to descend < upon them. ' Comparatively speaking, the ruin of these towns was as complete as that of Northern France. The ctreats of each town that we visited were dirty, almost filthy, and rows of shops were shuttered and closed, •vhilst apathetic crowds sjiood idly about, and virtually no business seemed afoot. ■ At every railway station and in the railway yards was a great quantity of rolling stock, engines being very noticeable, but these, together '.with, the freight asd passenger cars, were, as all things else, idle, and simply left to rot 'In the cun. There were a number of fair sized towns before we finally peached the destination where we were to hand out supplies to the people, and at each place along the route we made halts sufficiently long enough to; find sure evidence, that with small variation, tho same apathy and despair was1, unfortunately only too faithfully repeated.