EUROPE'S "SORE TOE"

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 122, 19 November 1932, Page 19

EUROPE'S "SORE TOE"

In-"Austria of To-day," Mr. Victor Wallace Germains,-writing'irony an inside knowledge of Austria's problems in -Vienna, aptly-. calls her Europe's' economic "sore toe." Her chief. intorest'for us, he points out, lies la the fact that practically every social and ecpnimie ill of which ,we : complain today has"made an earlier appearance in Austria, an,d an an even" intenser degree^ Inflation, exaggerated "Social Services," oppressive taxation, unemployment, Socialism, have all in turn presented themselves there- as urgent and dangerous problems, while almost every panacea advocated in' our own Press to-day as a cure for' our-own sociar troubles has been tried in Austria—and. found ineffective.

Mr. Germains believes that the Austria of firday could;become-inore" prosperous than many "of ' her - neighbours who pity her, 'for from 1926 to 1929 her trade'figures were on'the'upgrade. The chief obstacles aro' tariff' walls which ''' criss-crossing Europe and the world have dammed up *%he natural currents for the circulation of commodities at the very time when 'rationalised' industries have caused these currents'-to flow with, redoubled ' force.'. . Schober has been the first among our political, leaders to diagnose the;.evil and to suggest a remecly. ' How long will it bo before the other statesmen .of . Europe have the courage and wisdom to sink their feuds' and ■ dissensions in a, common impulse for good, and to follow the lead he has shown them?"

Mr. Germains's economic theories, whether they are justified or notj form an integralpart of this thorough-going study of post-war Austria. He diagnoses ' problems .which -lie :at 'the root of Central European affairs- to-day.'