AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1918, Page 5

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

CONDITIONS IN AUSTRIA. DISMEMBERMENT AND REVOLUTION* THREATENED. New York, Feb. 10. Mr. Simms says that Austria is threatened with disruption, dismemberment and revolution. Disease is rampant and the death-rate is mounting alarmingly The deaths from consumption alone exceed the birth-rate. A strange malady known as the bread disease is claiming multitudes. The rich continue to live well by bribery and paying stupendous prices, but the masses are suffering horribly. A wave of crime is sweeping the country and daylight robberies are rife- Ninety per cent, of the people are really opposed to the plutocratic war party," Hindenburg's planned offensive or the .West front is positively Germany's last effort. The Maximalist niovoment in Austria is rampant and growing, and the monarchy is alarmed. Austrian Maximalist prisoners, heaaed by Otto Bauer, recently returned from Russia and are spreading unrest and discontent among the Czechs and Young Slavs, who are demanding immediate peace. There were 120.030 deaths from eonsumption in Austria in 1917. Hindenburg realises that he must end the war soon or Austria will full to pieces.

DESPERATE ECONOMIC STATE THE GERMAN HOPE. THAT ALLIES WILL EXHAUST . THEMSELVES. Received Feb. 11, 8.30 jr.m. New York, Feb. 10. Mr. Simms, the United .Press correspondent, points out Germany's desperate economic straits. A high German officer offered to sell him German military secrets. Questioned as to his motive, he broke down and wept- He replied that he needed food for his 'starving mother and father. Caterpillars hnd destroyed the entire cabbage crops; dogs had practically disappeared, whilst crows were a rare delicacy. Cracow has been swept by famiu-. Owing to the shortage of clothing Oe corpses are buried in paper shrouds and pasteboard coffin?. American escapees relate that the Gorman-, no longer esnect victory but ope the Allies will be exhausted before Gerrnny is brought to her knees. Mr. Simms adds that he learned on rc-HaL;? authority that the Kaiser declared President Wilson's terns were reasonable enough and a basis for negotiation®. but had not. pressed his view Against Tlindenburg and Liulendorff, who are the Kaiser's absolute masters. COURT-MARTIAL BUSY. Received Feb. 11, 8.13 p.m. Berne, Feb. 10. A court-martial nas been sitting daily i>i Berlin since the proclamation of the extreme form,of martial law. The court hf.s tried 118,. all beinsr found guilty, the sentences ranging from a month to three years. PUBLIC MEETINGS PERMITTED. [ Amsterdam, Feb. 10. The right of public meeting has been restored in Germany. EFFECT OF AUSTRIAN SHORTAGE OF LEATHER. i. Berne, Feb. 10. Owing to the shortage of leather, the Austrian army boots are of poor quality, and 20,000 Austrian? had to ba withdrawn from the Italian front in -January, as they were suffering from frozen feet! TROUBLE OVER ROUMANIAN MAIZE Berne, Feb. 10/ the negotiations between Germany and Austria-Hungary regarding the division of the Roumanian maize crop threaten a rupture, the Austrians declaring that Germany has a fair potato crop enabling her population to live until_ the harvest is ready, whereas Aushas nothing. Serious trouble is predicted in Vienna unless Austria sets •he Tiaize, which the Government has almost promised to the population.