AUSTRO-GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 April 1918, Page 6

AUSTRO-GERMANY.

POPULAR DISCONTENT. REALISING FAILURE OF OFFENSIVE VIENNA FACED WITH STARVATION •■ ■ "i*' ■. ■ The Hague, April 3. The beginnings of dangerous popular discontent arc visible in Germany as th? result of the growing conviction that the offensive nas failetT, combined with the knowledge of the heavy casualties. Fifteen hundred stretcher cases arrived at the Frankfurt Hospital in a few hours An angry crowd deuion> strated, demanding .that the slaughter in order to gratify one man's ambition should not continue. Neutral observers from Germany and Austria state that the people are gravely dissatisfied and sceptical. There ia a widespread inclination to favor an early peace. Austrian newspapers largely share the scepticism and state that there is actual starvation in Vienna, which 13 causing an enormous death rate. This is attributed to a mysterious form of hunger typhus which is baffling the; tors.

SPEECH BY COUNT CZERNIN. PRINCIPLES OF PEACE. CENTRAL POWERS IN SOLID ALLIANCE. London, April 3. A wireless message from Amsterdam states that Count Czernin, speaking to the Vienna City Corporation, declared that lie, like Count von Hertling, ascepted President Wilson's principles for peace. He wondered whether the Allies of America, would likewise accept them. Ho said that M. Clemenceau asked him a few days before the offensive whether he wanted to negotiate, and on what basis. Count Czernin replied that he would gladly negotiate forthwith on the basis of the status quo regarding Alsace-Lor-j raine. ! The French Government thereupon declined any negotiations. Count Czernin spoke lengthily upon the solidarity of the German-Austrian Alliance. Austrian and German soldiers were fighting together on the west front for safety in the future and the maintenance of the Central Powers, not for annexations nor Imperialistic aims. ALLIES' LUNATIC ATTITUDE. Count Czernin continued that lie did not believe President Wilson dt-sired to separate Vienna from Berlin. He probably considered that Austria-Hungary, with a monarch genuinely and honorably desiring a general peace, represented favorable soil for sowing the seeds. He had understood that President Wilson has received the text of his former speech before its delivery, but it did not arrive in Washington till a few days later. Count Czernin added: "This is my witness that we tried everything to avoid the new offensive. The gigantic struggle has now begun, and our armies will show the Entente that French and Italian aspirations against our territory will be terribly avenged. The Entente attitude, which verges on lunacy, surely cannot be based on certain domestic Iftttl hut*-,