is well fed, at least relatively speaking; the second is hungry, but does not dare to revolt. It has fallen into a sort of lethargy, a physical and moral apathy. This different treatment explains why in Germany one can still see soldiers leaving for the front in good spirits, while the civilian population suffers severely. The morale of the German army is not yet shaken.
In Austria there is really great discontent, even at the front, but especially in the interior, where the soldiers are poorly fed. In the military hospitals the patients die oftener of emaciation than of their wounds. But now the authorities propose to follow the German example, and at the expense of the civilians add to the rations of the soldiers at the bases and of working-men employed in war industries.
One of the principal aims of the food administration is to keep the capital city contented. Above all things, peace and good order in Vienna must be preserved. It would be a mistake to judge the food difficulties of the monarchy by the conditions prevailing in Vienna.
Hungary suffers less and Croatia is comparatively well provisioned. My judgment is that the monarchy might last another year. After that it must surrender unconditionally. It is, however, quite possible that unexpected events may occur and the end will come quicker.
The situation of prisoners of war, especially of the Russians, is terrible. They die of hunger, except those employed on farms. Those that are concentrated in camps are slowly perishing. In the camp of Wegschied in Lower Austria there are 40 deaths a day of hunger.
Russians are also employed on the Italian front working on fortifications, often under fire of the Italian guns. Many try to escape. It has also happened that a group of Russians, armed only with their shovels, arrested an Italian patrol that made its way through the Austrian lines on the Isonzo front.
The Financial Situation.
A statement of the commission for the control of the public debt has been published. It reports that sixteen billion crowns of paper money has been printed. The gold and silver reserve amounts to exactly 328 million crowns. Loans made in Germany for the purpose of improving exchange rates exceed two billion. Foreign exchange worries the government considerably. The financial circles of Austria are pessimistic. Their opinion exerts considerable influence on Czernin’s foreign politics.
One of the best known members of the Rothschild group, Gompers, declared to me: “England has won this war; Austria must obtain at the peace negotiations in exchange for great political concessions a foreign loan to take care of her sixteen billion of treasury notes. Without it she cannot live.”
Meinl, one of the organizers of the famous conference of the “Oesterreichische Politische Gesellschaft”, is telling everybody that Austria is lost without a foreign loan which it will be impossible to get. There is talk about confiscating ten per cent of all private property, real and personal, and to issue mortgage notes (Pfandbriefe) for that amount, with the idea of pledging the notes in England and America as security for a loan. The plan is being taken quite seriously.
To improve somewhat the adverse foreign exchange, sugar, wood, and petroleum is exported, and all kinds of schemes are considered. But the lack of food and raw material is only aggravated thereby. The fear of bankruptcy is one of the most powerful motives making for Austria’s pacifist policy.
The Military Situation.
Owing to the Russian collapse, the breakdown of Austrian armies is for the time being postponed.
The dearth of horses is beyond description. There is no more cavalry. The horses have been turned over to the artillery. It was the lack of horses that arrested the counter offensive in Galicia. In consequence of heavy rains 50,000 horses perished in the mud of Eastern Galicia. The minister of war wants to requisition all the farm horses; the minister of agriculture is opposed to it. There will be some compromise that will satisfy no one. But this much is certain that the next harvest will be adversely affected in any case. The system of scattering German troops among Austrian is well-known. Austrians are placed in the front ranks, Germans in reserve. So it happens that the German reserves claim the victories, because they attack after the first line at the cost of great
