WITH AUSTRIAN ARMY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 220, 17 August 1937, Page 12

WITH AUSTRIAN ARMY.

NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCE

AUCKLAND, Aug. 15. While he went to England with a post-graduate scholarship to study at the University College, London, Dr. D. W. McElwain, Wanganui, who returned from England to-day, found ■4imo for a little adventure on the Continent. After taking hie degree at Wanganui Technical College and spending a year at Victoria College, Wellington, Dr. McElwain studied for two years in London, taking his Doctorate of Philosophy in psychology. He specialised in child psychology, and one of his tutors was Dr. Susan Isaacs, who visited the Dominion recently.

Outstanding among his experiences abroad was his service with the Oesterreichischer Arbeitsdienst, which corresponds to our Army Service Corps. Gaining entrance to this branch of the army by exchanging papers with an Austrian, Dr. McElwain found his experience afforded him an opportunity of studying the Austrian people and their problems. His service with the army took him to the Tyrol, where he was engaged in building military roads.

“We received fourpence a day, less twopence a week for washing,” said Dr. McElwain. “We were issued with uniforms very much like those issued to members of the Air Force in England. Conditions were very poor compared with our standards, and the poverty in parts of Austria was appalling. The Austrians are very conscious of class distinctions, and the fact that I was a university student was more to my disadvantage than the fact of my being English. For wearing socks and pyjamas I was regarded as a ‘snob.’ ” The Austrians were divided into three distinct groups by Dr. McElwain. First, there were the townspeople of Vienna, who could be described as Protestant. The peasants in the south were inclined towards Italy, and the third group, dwellers by the mountain sides, were mostly Roman Catholic and were very much like Bavarians. They were intensely anti-Communistic. The Pro-Italian and Pro-German elements in Austria were not very strong, said Dr. McElwain. It was a criminal offence to use the greeting “Heil Hitler.” A union with Germany was not favoured by the majority of the people, and the popular slogan in Austria was for the revival of Austria. Much of the propaganda was on German lines, although Dr. Schusclinigg, the Chancellor, was not pushed forward like Hitler in Germany. There were enormous steel deposits in ' Austria, but there was no market. Much of the industrial territory was taken away from the country after the war, and agricultural methods, were still very primitive.