Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-08-08
ARMY DESERTERS
TURN TO BANDITS
Austrian Peasants Terror.
lied and Plundered in
Medieval Style
10000 ARE IN THE GROUP
German Troops Called to Sup.
press Disorder-Bohe.
mians Raid Trains
BY WARD PRICE
Special Cable to Evening Public Ledge

Special Cable to Epening Public Ledger
Copvri0ht. 1918. bv NcD York Times Co.
Italian Army Headquarters, Aug 8.
The present state of Austria.
Hungary, as represented by the
prisoners taken lately on the italian
front, is extremely serious. Mutiny
and desertion in the army, and food
riots and strikes among the civil
population occur throughout the
heterogeneous empire.
According to these accounts Austria
seems to be going gradually back to
a reproduction of the old medieval
days, when bands of discharged SOL
diers in arms roamed Central Europe,
terrorizins and robbing the peasaantry:
and defying all authority. Scattered
about in the forest and moorland there
are today many little groups of out
laws and, as in Montenegro, of mere
brtgands who live by plunder.
Deserters from the Austrian army
rally to these bands of freebooters,
more especially men who have re-
turned from long periods as prisoners
or war In Russia and find that they
now are required to rejoin as soldiers.
Military patrols sent against them
often go over to the mutineers.
10000 Armed Fugitives
There is an organization of armed
fuGitlVes from the service in Moravia,
which is known as the Green Guards,
and is said to be 10000 strong, while
In Hungary a sort of Robin Hood
band has come into being, which calls
itself the Royal and Imperial Bri-
gands Of Bhar." These genial out.
laws are already heroes of popular
ballads, and they have reserves of
stolen ammunition and supplies hid
den in the forests.
Centers of the settled population
also are not free from disorder. Ger.
man troops have been called in to
crush Austrian and Hungarian
tumuts at Innsbruck, Budapest, and
in Walachia. and one of the chief
sources of trouble throughout the
country is the regimental depots
where men are collected for dispatch
to the front. In Bohemia the civil
population, too, raids the food trains
as they pass through from the
Ukraine, being given timely warning
OF their arrival by the railway officials
Machine Guns Used on Strikers
There were strikes at the big Skoda
works in June. The work people blew
up part of the factory and paraded
through the streets Bavarian regi
ments there had to use machine guns
before the strikers were crushed.
battalion on its way to the front mu
tinted at Innsbruck in June and locked
It's officers In the station. the men scat
tering. On May Is a battalion of Czech.
refused to leave for the front.
| Croatian company sent to restore ordel
| threw in it's lot with them and seizeC
| the station. A German regiment O
Bavarians was called in and dsarmet
the mutineers after fighting, in which
| there were considerable losses on boil
sides.
An Austrian deserter who recent,
came over gives a detailed account o
revolt which he says he helped t.
| organize in the ninety-seventh regimen
at Rakesburg on the night Of May 20
The regiment was 1000 strong composed
mostly of men who had returned from
being prisoners in Russia. The mutn!
was started prematurely, owing to al
officer abusing some men found drunk il
| the barracks of their companies, VIII,
took their part. Shots We're fired ant
| the soldiers tried to rush the gates o
| the barracks, but the officers stopped
| them by threatening them with thei
| reyOlVerS