MURMURS IN AUSTRIA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 233, 8 December 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

MURMURS IN AUSTRIA.

LONG-SUFFERING SOLDIERS JOIN IN THE PUBLIC OUTCRY

A .sidelight on the increasing demoralisation of the Austro-Hungarian population is shown by a Tetter ieceived in Paris by the Czech National Council.

Written from Prague to a Czech prisoner in Italy, it says that all the Czechs are now convinced that Austria i.s lost, and this opinion is openlv expressed. The police and the judicial authorities realise that if all those who use subversive language were arrested and tried it would be neceNsarv to incarcerate the whole nation, and the army as well. The soldiers who return to Prague are in a pitiable state, and one soldier said : —" 1 hey have nothing to eat. A single Russian could 'eat up' ten such maimed men." Yet these men are being sent to the front again. Disaffection is rampant, it appear-, among the military men, and a wounded lieutenant was heard openly describing, in a railway carriage, the sufferings and misery undergone by the soldiers, though a superior officer was witlnn hearing in the corridor. In Prague hotels there" is often no broad for the breakfast of the hotel staffs. Tk> "card system" is also for meat, beef costing 12 kronen (about 10s) and pork 11 kronen per lb. A kilogram of rice (about 21b.), which formerly co.st about is now sold for 2s 6d.

Other provisions have advanced proportionately, and butter, formerly it Is 2d, now commands from os to 6s Rd. A fair meal in a resaurant cannot be obtained for less than 6s.