AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 January 1917, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

CUTTING THE PAINTER. AUSTRIAN KING AND KAISER. DIFFERENCES IRRECONCILABLE. Received, January y, 1 a.m. . . 1 London, Jan. 8. I.ie Daily News' Berne correspondent mates that news from .Austria, .from trustworthy sources, stabs that tjie differences between the Kaiser and King Charles have-gone so far that thev can" not again be reconciled. Austria having forced Germany to agree to a joint offer ol pence, negotiations are now preparing fov still mere sensational steps. " THE POMST-I COUNCIL FARCE. Received, Jan. S., 10 40 p.m. Amsterdam, Jan. 8. The Frankfurter Zeitung states that ail political parties will be represented iu tho temporary Polish Cabinet Council, excepting the National Democrats. The Council is to be summoned on the ninth. Germany's nominee, has already been appointed. THE KAISER'S BLUSTER , APPROVED. London, Jan. 7. The German newspapers enthusiastically approve the Kaiser's order to the army and navy. There are national rejoicings over the capture of Braila. A TIRADE AGAINST ALLIES. London. Jan. 7. The Daily .Mail's Amsterdam correspondent says that the Rlieinische We*tfaclische boasts of the Gtrmar. warlike forces, including inventions, not yet shown at their full de-elopment. 'it says that England and France have long since converted a chivalrous struggle into butchery by Franctireuvs and Nettoyeurs. They will be merciless in their destruction. Let us use our new sharp weapons.

AUSTRIA'S FOOD DICTATOR. Amsterdam, Jqn. 7. Herr yon Iloefer has been appointed Austrian food dictator. He is the third occupant of the position in three months. FORCING THE POLES TO SERVE. London, Jan. 7. The Frankfurter Zeitmyg says that the temporary Polish Cabinet .'Jounc : l will consist of twenty-five members, Germany appointing fifteen and Austria ten. The first task will be to organise the enlistment of a Polish army. DESTRUCTION OF ECONOMIC FORCE. l!"rno, Jan. 7. Dr. ScbacfiVn, a pronounced pau-Gcr-nianist, writing in the Leipzigor Deuste ■Naehrieht.cn. admits that the Allio-, are capable of destroying the Germans' economical force. Already German exports have ceased and three-fourths of her manufactures are stopped. It will require years to patch up industry. ' Germany's future will be crushed under new taxes. It is no question now of the enemy having to pay the test of the nar. Each party will have to pay its own expenses. England and Russia will be able to do so more easily rhnn Germany, which will succumb beneath their development unless the war secures for Germany largo territory to' en.-nre her eeiiiomical expansion. SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN NECESSARY. Amsterdam, Jan. 7. Herr Ballin. in a speech at Leiuzig. said lie would despise statesmen who because some German shins wre interned in America refrained from employing submarines as a weapon to bring about the defeat of England. If Germany was victorious German shipping would occupy a mighty position in the world, whereas if she were defeated her '.hipping was doomed to pei-Wi, whether or not she kept her ships lying in American ports.

AN ECONOMICAL CONFERENCE. Received Jiin. 8, 5.30 p.m. Amsterdam, Jan. 7. Ozernin lin s arrived at Berlin and conferred with the Kaiser, who arranged a conference with the Chancellor and leading politicians and bankers v EFFECT OF WAR ON NATION. WOMAN'S IMPRESSIONS. A ladv, now in Melbourne, was in Germany when war broke out, and she did not succeed in {jetting out of the country till May of last year. Then, after many difficulties, she was able to secure a passport and make her way to Copenhagen, and thence to England. "Germany and her allies are in a state of siege," she said, "if you can use the term of a vast belt of country extending right across Europe. When I left tiermany the Swiss frontier was reported as being closed altogether, except for the exchange of prisoners who are sent into Germany and out of it by way of Switzerland, '.Then they arc permanently incapacitated for further service. Them is a certain amount of passenger traflie to and from Holland and Scandinavia, but the examination at (lie frontier i 3 most searching. You cannot travel without a passport, and tliey are very difficult to obtain, and are only granted to those who have a definite and specified business.

"I must say that the German newspapers often used to make my blood boil. We hear of the 'hymn of hate,' but it is. impossible at this distance to form a just idea of the strength of the hatrc wiiicfc the Cermetn Press directs against England. Many individuals were kindly and considerate, but in the mass the (ijnnans look on England as the nation that upset their plans, and they hate her. accordingly. They feel a sort of kindly, if rather contemptuous pity for (lie French, but the way in which the British stepped in and prevented them from overthrowing France fills them with rage and loathing. Our feelings of dislike towards Germany are mild indeed compared to their feeling's against us. "As to the economic position in Germany there is no doubt that it bears very hardly 011 the poorer classes. The food prices are very little guide. If it is true, as stated in a recent cable message, that food prices have not since the outbreak of the war advanced much more in Berlin than in London—loo per cent, as against S4—that is very little indica-

Lion nf the relative abundance of fooil in the two places. Prices have not gone higher in Germany because they are coiltrolled by the Government, which has taker. over the slocks of most articles of food and doles them out. You have meat tickets, bread tickets, milk tickets, butter tickets, collet ticket", fat tickets, and tickets of every kind. The ration allowed each week in Saxony is .Tib of bread Mb of > : ui?ar, and other things in proportion. You are supposed to pet sonic fat. but in practice all you get is the ticket, because there is no fat to be had for love or money. For Hie poor, who cannot supplement the ration bv any outside luxuries, it is hardly enough to live on, much less lo work hard on. The Germans feel it the more, because they are good caters under normal conditions, accustomed to hearty meals and plenty of fat and such things. "1 do not feel that 1 ought to enlarge too much oi the food scarcity in formally. because it may lead some people to conclude that the end is near, and that there is no need for increased effort* on our pari. That, is not the case. The German people are suffering privations, but there is no doubt that they will go on fighting stubbornly iv> spite of short commons. T do not put much faith in the idea of a revolution in Germany. For the most part the people suffer whatever the war brings on them silently and submissively. There have been riots in various cities —indeed, there was a riot in the city I was living in—but. fhey are isolated and sporadic outbreaks. The way in which Germany has been able, to finance the war and to organise it has surprised even the Germans themselves. After what 1 saw of Germany 1 feel that the Allies want every ounce of strength, for Germany is fari from beaten.''