GERMANY

Taranaki Daily News, 19 January 1916, Page 5

GERMANY

PESSIMISM PREVAILS, NO MORE "HURRAHS". A NEUTRAL'S STORY. Times and Sydney Sim Services. London, Jan, 17. The Times, in the first of a series of articles by neutral travellers, publishes a graphic picture of Austro-Germany. The great number of wounded in'the trains, the stations and towns was impressive, and every village has its hospital. Middle-aged men were entirely absent, and women, children, and old men were carrying on the field work., The writer saw no gold coin. The Deutsche Bank has called up medals, promising replicas after the war. The soldiers agreed that the most respected of their enemies were the French artillery and the British infantry. The people were talking everywhere of the projected march to Constantinople and thence to the Suez Canal, yet there was a general under-current of pessimism and the sayings "How long?" and "God knows how it will end," replaced the old certainty of victory. The restaurant tariffs were continually raised, and a traveller got miserably little dinner for ss ; beer had deteriorated and the price advanced 40 per cent.: bread cards gave the right to 17.3 grammes (0 ounces), being five miniature loaves about the size of a crown piece. In Vienna, of 4000 taxi-cabs in peace time only 100 remained. The street illumination was pitiful. Women were doing the hardest navvy work ami street cleaning. The theatres were crowded and there was little mourning in Hungary. 'Butter was 5s 2d per pound, lard 7s ftl, dinner'at a hotel 7s fid. The Russian prisoners' were working as navvies everywhere. Rubber tyres had been stripped off vehicles and motdr-ears were using wooden tyres'. The quality of petrol had been reduced and chauffeurs, for starting cars, used benzine specially carried in tiny bottles The stores announced that'they had no string to tie up parcels. The ''hurrah" feeling had disappeared in northern Prussia, and everywhere there was a desire for the end and wailing for the many dead and suffering. Owing to the cost of living ho did not doubt that the greater part of the working classes were suffering from hunger. Austro-Cermany was recognising that her victories were unavailing and that the situation was becoming^eritieai