Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-05-22
ATE MEMS FLESH,
CHARGE IN VIENNA
Town Council Investigates
Report of Cannibalism
Among Prisoners
OFFICIALLY HUSHED UP
Special Cable to Epening Public Ledger

SpecidJ Cubte TO EteniHg Fu0tlC LedgeT
London, May 90.
Al dispatch to the Daily Mail from
Annemasse, on the FranCo.Swiss from
tier, says:
II have just received from sources
must not reveal but for the honesty
and authentic nature of which | can
personally vouch, a series of oral
statements direct from Vienna and
Styria recording observations made III
Austria up to almost the end of April
Ny Informant said:
ss'The great masses of the Austrian
people are more than warsick. no
longer do they talk of their success
or nonsuccess. They talk and think
OF nothing but bread. They want
peace because it will give them bread
Their morale is so low that the Gov
ernrnent is afraid of Bolshevism.
cannot tell you what we in austria
have suffered, this last year. ana OF
deeds done through hunger that are
whispered about.
zeitung was confsCated last March
lest IL should speak of events abomi'
nable to hear. 1t demanded an IN.
yestjeatipn- of two horrible cases or
murder of prisoners of war by thelf
fellow w-workmen in gas works IN the
sixteenth municipal district or Vienna
and accused the workfnen OF eating
part of the bodies. | do not think TINS
is sensation-mongering or the fan'
tastic invention of the mob. l kne"
a member of the town council ap-
t,ointed to inouire into the matter,
and IL was clear. he maintained, that
at least two such instances OF can
nibalism occurred at the gas works
one at the end of December and other
last March. It was referred TO IN
Parliament. but It was hushed up III
the press Of Vienna itself.
Goyernment Fears Bolshevism
.-The Austrian Government fears
nothing more than the spread Of Boil
shevist ideas among these people. ana
II Is a matter of common knowledge II
Austria that all Austrian prisoners =
turning from Russia are quaranttned for
sthree weeks at the frontier to make
sure that they are politically clean and
unlikely to infect their comrades al
home with the leprosy of Bolshevsm.'
II was present at Graz five weeks
aeo. on a journey through Styria. when
food riots broke out there The work
men in munition factories struck. The.1
marched to the town hall and flung their
loaves at the windows as protest
against the bad stuff that was in the
bread, which was made of maize plent-
fully mixed with -four got from the
bark of trees and ground into powder.
& other worlSmen marched thorugh tho
town, and with loaves smashed the win
dows of all cafes and shops and otter
Numbered buildings and scattered their
contents in the street. Similar out
breaks had taken place in other towns
and not word of 1t do they dare put
in the papers.
The police afterward gathered VI
the lcaves lying in the mud, and they
were served out as an extra ration t,
the population.
sauerkraut and Pickles
"'In Vienna there were whole weeks
when the people got nothing but sauer.
kraut for the principal meals day, fol.
lowed by other weeks when we had
only. picked cucumbers and gherkins.
and Others again when We had nothing
for dinner but those nauseous mangel-
wurzels. things they usually give only
to cattle. together with a little maize
bread. Sometimes. but at the cost Of
one would get a couple Of pounds Of
potatoes in a week.
" My family and I have lived for
weeks on hardly anything but some
mushrooms which we gathered in a
forest near the town.
People often faint in the streets
y from inanition. tell YOU there is not
only hunger-there is famine in Austria.
Laa ~ 1f he T.
sunk that they can hardly stand. let
alone work, and things are getting worse
every day
Even soldiers get insufficient food
They too. are not only sick Of the war.
but also thoroughly apathetic 1t is a
common sight to see troops begging for
bread and food from the inhabitants
and on railway Journeys during the last
six weeks / have seen soldiers at sta
tions where we stopped imploring the
people in the train to give them even
peelings and remnants of food.
" Austria is shuddering at the pros
pect OF the next three months The
people. as far as they dare whisper
seer at Hindenburg's promise of smash
ing the English and French with a big
offensive and getting German peace
s''You have humbugged us toe often
xlready,' they say, with your U-boat
promises. your Brest-Litovsk and all the
rest of II. and the only result of youI
beautiful U-boat war is that you brought
America In as a new enemy"
AT first everybody in Austria made
fun Of President Wilson as mere Don
Quixote and pedant. but now they are
changing their tune and are afraid
America means business
.LE.1 noI mamma nAnrIInrn