AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 December 1915, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

DISAFFECTED WORKMEN. AMMUNITION FACTORY DESTROYED. Received Dec. C, 8.5 p.m. Copenhagen, Dec. 5. It lias been privately learned that a large ammunition factory was blown up at Halle ('2l miles north-west of Leinsig, and the. seat of a famous university). Several hundred people were killed. Another factory at Bojden, in Silesia, narrowly escaped destruction. Underminings were discovered at the eleventh hour. Many arrests have been made. It is suspected that the crimes are due to disaffected workmen. SOCIALISTS AT WORK. AX INTERESTING MANIFESTO. Geneva, Dec. 5. The Austrian Socialist Party has secretly distributed a manifesto in the country stating that the truth is hidden from Austria. It states:*—"We have not had liberty, and in Austria the regime has become terrible. Since the. war there has been neither constitution nor justice. Executioners will have much worli, and the civilised world will shiver with horror when it knows what is being done in Austria." The manifesto says:— '• We can only speak of death penalties passed on citizens whose only crime was the exchange of social ideas. Iferr Lapger was hanged because ho published a book asking for peace. This is how the Austrian Government acts while it is pretending to light barbarism. This is why we are asking internationalists to save us. We shall become slaves and be compelled to be enthusiastic Czechs. Italian Slavs will be forced to make manifestations of patriotism and subscribe to loans. Wc don't want Austria victorious; we want her defeat. Austria declared war on the pretext that she was delivering Poland, now she wants to subject her to a Hapsburg dictatorship, jf a real Parliament existed, Austria's shameful ultimatum to Serbia would never have been sent. We will now begin to light for a republic; we want revolution, not war. After the war we shall imitate the French revolution. Austria can only live by the ruin of the Hapsburgs." Tlu> manifesto declares that the annexation of Belgian and French territory is a crime. It concludes: "Austria is suffering terribly by the war, and will be the first to be ruined by it." THE PEACE DEBATE. Amsterdam, Dec. 5. The German Socialist peace interpellation is the outcome of a party quarrel. A minority want immediate peace on the principle of the renunciation of new territory, while the majority consider the Chancellor cannot be forced to lay down such a principle, because it would be taken as a sign of weakness. FOOD RIOTS IN BERLIN. MANY KILLED AND. WOUNDED. New York, Dec. 5. A Berne message, reports that a demonstration of Berlin workers, in consequence of the scarcity, of food, was ■broken by the military. The soldiers fired on the crowd, and it is estimated that two hundred were killed and hundreds wounded. A SACRILEGE. STATUES AT INNSBRUCK. London, Dec. 5. The bronze statues in the Franciscan Church at Innsoruck are to be used for cannon, including the fine statue of tin English King Arthur. Wellington, Dec. G. The statement in the cables to-day that the bronze statues in the Franciscan Church at Innsbruck are to be. melted down for cannon is most significant. Twenty-four of these statues stand round the church guarding the magnificent tomb of Maximillian." Each is so arranged that a torch can be inserted in the hand. Much above life size, they are superb specimens of the handieraftsmanship of the middle ages. They represent the supposed progenitors of the Hapsburg family, male and female, und go as far back as the semimythical King Arthur of England, and Godfrey of Bouillon, King of Jerusalem. The church, with nearly the whole of its nave taken up by the tomb and. those gigantic statues, is one of the most striking sights of the. Continent. Thnt the Royal House of Austria should consent to the destruction of these cherished monuments of its family speaks volumes for the straits to which the country must be reduced. DEPRESSION IN AUSTRIA. AX UNHAPPY FAMILY. J London, Dec. 5. Reutcr's Zurich correspondent says that each successive levy in Austria is causing depression. Maiiy make desperate efforts to avoid serving, especially the -14-50 class, who are leaving their homes next Monday. The great majority have previously been rejected as unfit, some four time's. Many produced medical certificates proving that service was likely to be dangerous, until the War Office notified doctors that they were not called on to express an opinion on military fitness. There is much dissatisfaction in Austria, especially in Bohemia and in the Italian border districts, because the Hungarians have not been called up un:ti| much later.