AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1917, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

THE ECONOMIC SITUATION

GROWING RAPIDLY WORSE.

A BLACK OUTLOOK. Reuter Service. Received Oct. 14, 8 p.m. London, Oct. 14. Fresh information regarding the economic situation in Germany indicates that the position is becoming worse. Corn crops have failed, and the outlook for oats and barley is bad. The 1917 harvest is forty per cent, below that of norm'al years. A certain amount is expected from Roumanian granaries. The failure of fodder crops is seriously affecting the breeding industry and the milk supply. The price of bread is beginning to double. The weekly meat ration has been reduced to half a pound. Trade and industry are practically at a standstill. The publication of vital statistics has been suppressed, owing to the alarming figures. The conditions in Austro-Hungary are infinitely worse.

1 MICHAELIS TO KETIRE. Received Oct. 14, 8 p.m. Berne, Oct. U. A Stuttgart newspaper states that Dr. Michaelis will retire. Herr Hertling, tho Bavarian Premier, will probably succeed him. MORE ABOUT NAVAL REVOLT. Copenhagen. Oct. 14. The Stift Stidendc says that the mutiny in the German navy began in February when the Dreadnought Bayern's crew, owing to unsatisfactory food, tied an officer to an anchor and let it into the sea. The majority were sent to the front and others confined in the naval prison at Cologne GRAVITY OF POLITICAL ORISIS. Paris, Oct. 14. The Matin's Zurich correspondent says that the German crisis is tha since the war. Dr. Michaelis and the Pan-Germans find themselves pitted against the Reichstag instead of merely the Independent Socialists. Admiral von Capelle accuses Dr. Michaelis of shameful desertion after they had agreed to stand together in the whole affair.

THE RESOURCES OF GERMANY HEARING THE END HER ALLIES ARE NOT AN ASSET. In an interview recently published in i.the New York Times a Swiss merchant [ calls attention to the serious condition of Germany. His sober and exhaustive discussion bears all the earmarks of truth, and when,he says that Germany's three weak spots are men, transports, and her Allies, there can be little doubt that he has stated the situation as it exists. To take them in reverse order, it must be manifest that her Allies are not an asset for Germany, but a growing liability. Other things being equal even the Russians can beat the Austrians, who at no time have put up much of a fight without a stiffening of German troops and German leadership. General Maude's position in Mesopotamia involves a long line of communications which must be defended. And yet the Turks have not attacked him at a time when the Russian support, which lie was entitled to expect, completely failed him. General Sarrail has been unmolested at Salonika, while the Bulgarians and Turks are conducting an unsuccessful campaign to extract more money from the German Government's empty coffers. And Germany's transport in three years must have been knocked to pieces. We know well enough what maintenance and replacements mean, and it is not surprising to hear that in rails, railbeds and rolling stock, the German system has lost the supreme effectiveness it enjoyed at the outbreak of the war, while it is short of men to handle the business of the road 6, a duty, it need hardly lie said, which could not be entrusted .£o prisoners.

But the man-power question is liy far the most serious. In 101"), Hillaire "Belloc said that the German Government was understating its . war losses, and •that it had been doing so increasingly since its plans went wrong after the battle of the Marne. This was not a loose statement. He based his conclusion on the returns of German communities proud of the num•ber of men they had given for the Father■land, of insurance companies, friendly societies, and other institutions, whose business it was to record mortality sta* tistics. He found a striking and grow< ing discrepancy, and all such comparisons since have shown a widening breach between the official figures and the facts. The German reserves are manifestly far less than Germany's friends would have us believe. There are two deductions which can safely be made which prove -this.

If reserves had been available in any thing like the nuiriber advertised, is there any question that the offensive •on the Eastern front would have been pushed to its limit? In his present morale, the Russian soldier could offer little resistance. But he has not been attacked, and it is clear that the Germans arc no longer in a situation to undertake a new offensive. The other fact is that the British and French report prisoners of an average age of eighteen years and two months, showing that the class of 1018 is already in the field, while the children of 1919 are under training.

It must be apparent from these facta that Germany is Hearing her last resources, and that her one Lope is that her adversaries may become weary and conclude a sentimental peace before desperate necessity compels her to throw up the sponge.—Wall Street Journal.