AUSTRIA IMPATIENTLY AWAITS "LIBERATION"

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5283, 20 December 1946, Page 7

AUSTRIA IMPATIENTLY AWAITS "LIBERATION"

MASS OF ALLIED CONTROLS AND RESTRICTION S While the occupation of Austria was a military as well as a political necessity, and the presence of foreign 'troops undoubtedly saved the country from starvation and civil strife during the second half of 1945, the initial advantages were more than balaneed by the lack of co-ordination between the Allies and the resulting prolongation of the occupation, writes Ernest Pisko in the Christian Science Monitor.

As things look r.ow, it is evident that Allied troops are going to stay here* until at least the early spring of 1947. Austrians feel that is too long by about 12 months. They say it not only malces a travesty of the concept of Austria as a "liberated" country, but retards its economii recovery -by years. The most* constructive eontribution to Austrian recovery has been made by the United States, the most disinterested of the Allie~. The bullc of the food imports is of American origin. Stabilisation of the schilling is an American acbievement. The United States was the first to renounce its claims on Austrian industrial i>nstallatdc\is of allegedly German proVenance. There were countless other ways in which the American occupation authorities boosted Austrian morale — from speeding up the rubble removal in Vienna's streets to assisting prominently in the reopening of the Salzburg Festivals. Th'e British eontribution was considerable, too, though in a less conspicuous manner. On the whole, the Tommies are perhaps hetter liked than the G.I.'s. But in- the British zone of Styria and Carinthia one can hear complaints about the aloofness of the higherranks and the mass of red tape. From what this writer was told by leading Austrian officials in those two provinceS, too little is left to the initiaive of the regional commanders, too many urgent decisions have to wait for the O.K. from London. The Frenc'h excel in everything connected with 1 "Kulturbelangen" (cultural affairs). But Austrians say that for the more practical tasks of the occupation they have neither the organisational slrill nor the equipment reqnired. They take vei'y little away from the country; perhaps even less than the Americans or British. Yet, unlike these two, they are omable to balance the drain on the Austrian market by imports from their own country. The Russian picture has been distorted by the initial excesses of the Rejd Army, palrtijcularly in Vienna. Those happenings are a thing of the past and in no way connected with Soviet policy in Austria. Russians Intent on Staying? As to the amount of assistance rendered to Austria, the Soviet Union is probably second only to the United States. Still the Russian occupation is essentially different from that of the three Westem allies. The Soviet Union is the only member of the Big Four whieh has an interest in staying here permanently. A few weeks ago people here were alarmed by rumours about an impending partition of Austria. According to an allegedly Russian-sponsored plan, Carinthia and Styria were to be ceded to Yugoslavia; Salzburg, Tyrol and part of Upper Austria to Germany; Vorarlberg to Switzerland; Burgenland to Hungary, and the remainder of Upper Austria plus Lower Austria and Vienna to Czechoslovakia. That plan was considered an invention of the post-war Nazis and not taken seriotfsly. However, the scheme had a very sound basis. If accepted it I

would have provided the Slavic bloc with the missing link in Central Europe. There would have been a Slavic corridor between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. Soviet troops and Soviet trade would have a clear path from the Pacifie to the Adriatic. ■ Yet it is realised that the .same end can be achieved with an Austria mnpartitioned but securely under Soviet domination. Russia, in contrast to the United States, Great Britain and France, has an interest in dominating Austria — not for any imperialist or pan-Slav tendencies, but because this country, which has a definitely western charaeter, forms an enclave between Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, all three of which are at present learning- towards the East. The Austrians are bait too well . aware of their country's key position. "It is 1938 all over again," they say. They would like nothing hetter tljan to see the last of the occupation forees — but of all four of them, not just three. Good Reasons for "Liberation." They have many good reasons for wanting to be actually "liberated." Despite the improved control agreement of last Ju.ly, icter-zonal trade is still ridiculously small. Inter-zonal passenger traffic requires still a daylong paper chase by the daring rtraveller. If something goes wrong there is still a igraceful buck-passing between Allied and Austrian authorities which does not help the poor citizen. And worst of all, there is the still high degree of insecurity as to what is and what is not private property. Nothing has retarded Austria's recovery and discredited the Allies as much as the requisitiorJng and commandeering of factories, houses and apartments. People say: "W'hy should v/e repair our machines? As long as they don't work they will not be requisitioned." It is the same with houses, especially in Vienna and Lower Austria. Much would have been rebuilt but for the fact that landlords know that they would only have a remote chance of keeping the house. "Don't blame us for not v/orking as much as we could," a Tyrolean industrialist told me. "You should have been here in the summer of last year. We made a good start then, but soon we discovered that we were not working for ourselves. No sooner had we finished something than it was taken over by the occupation forees. So we stopped. And we are not going to start anew until we have our country to ourselves." The Austrians see that. the occupation armies are being constantly reduced. But they also see that the reduced forees require a constantly increasing spaee. '•E'ach army has a way of expanding and setting up new offiees. Each army has its annex of dependents. And while the military, as a rule, are satisfied with modest lodgings, the dependents are not. They insist on complete apartments and often on one-family houses. And they get them. The result is that to-day, 18 months after the end of the European war, a high proportion of Austria's city population live under conditions that are worse than those of the summer of 1945.