AUSTRIAN STRIKES GENERAL DISCONTENT. DISORDERS SPREADING.

From A. BEAUMONT. MILAN, Sunday Afternoon.

LONDON, TUESDAY JANUARY 22, 1918 A sudden outbreak of general strikes in many towns of Austria and Hungary, including Vienna and Budapest, where rioting has proceeded to such an extent that the newspapers in the former city were unable to appear, has created a grave situation in the Dual Monarchy. Partial strikes were reported daily for the last week or more. Numerous factories in Vienna were closed, and large crowds paraded the streets, demanding bread. The Vienna municipal authorities offered to resign their mandate, and during the riots shots were fired, and casualties were reported. The origin of the disturbances was the shortness of flour, and the consequent scarcity of bread for the working population. The bread question has been urgently discussed for the past three weeks in all the Vienna papers, and in most of the towns the officials announced that the allowance might have to be reduced by one half. An actual scarcity of flour preceded this official announcement, and in some manufacturing districts flour failed altogether. The papers threw the blame chiefly on the State administration and its want of organisation, but the truth is that the stock of flour has been nearly exhausted. The Arbeiter Zeitung, of Vienna, made a furious attack upon the Administration on Friday, declaring that it was absurd that, whilst 10,000,000 people of a special class were tolerably provided for, there were 17,000,000 people, for whom there was no flour, and for whom the Government seemed to have no care. The Arbeiter Zeitung invited all the working people of Vienna to hold a meeting of protest, and its exhortation perhaps exceeded expectations, as a response came from every working quarter. The movement instantly assumed such proportions that the police were unable to keep order. The repair shops and engine works of the Southern Railway, those of the State Railway, and of the Semmering, of Florisdorf, of Stadland, and Ottakring went on strike. The general population joined the strikers everywhere, and last Thursday Vienna presented an extraordinary spectacle. The Graben, the Ring Strasse. and all the central thoroughfares were literally packed by standing or slowly moving crowds, which called for bread or demonstrated their hunger in silence. But, after remaining comparatively quiet for some time, the crowds lost their patience, and deliberately slopped all the trams, compelling the employees to join the demonstration. A big procession moved through the Karntnerstrasse, and the shops were hastily closed. The town councillors met, and sent an urgent protest to the Government against the reduction of the bread allowance. The strike extended to Wiener Neustadt, where the workers in all the State and munition factories walked out. Both munition works are entirely closed. A big aeroplane factory in the same district is likewise closed. Violent encounters followed between the police and the crowd of strikers, the authorities hesitating to employ the military. as nearly all Vienna seemed to be in the streets. Soldiers were merely sent to guard the public buildings. The crowd attacked the offices of the clerical and Germanophile Reichspost. smashing its windows and howling, “Down with the war fiends.” The strike movement has also extended to Trieste, and demonstrations took place in Cracow, where a procession, headed by the Archbishop, went to the Governor’s palace to ask for bread. A strike has now been declared also in Wien Neukirchen. in San Polten in Jarnitz, and in many towns of Bohemia, Silesia, Styria, and Carinthia. At Gratz and Klagenfurt all the factories are closed. Strikes are also announced in Galicia, and violent encounters took place between the police and crowds in Cracow. The latest Vienna news is that the demonstrations, which already seemed to have reached their maximum last Thursday, continued on Friday, and that huge processions of munition workers, factory hands, and employees of all descriptions, and women and children, walked through the principal streets calling for bread. The newspapers failed to appear, except the Arbeiter Zeitung, which had a long account of the negotiations at Brest-litovsk, to sustain a hope of peace, and which expressed satisfaction at Count Czernin’s declaration that Austria placed no hindrances in the way of the negotiations bv declining any policy of annexation. Whether this is true or not, the news spread to the quiet Socialist agitation. A number of Reichsrath deputies met and sent a delegation to the Government. The Food Controller has received large delegations of strikers, to whom he promised to do everything possible to improve the food supply, but the main point demanded by the strikers was that the peace negotiations should he hastened, as this question was superior to every other. At six o’clock on Friday evening Socialist delegates from .all the Vienna districts met for consultation in the meetingrooms of the Railway Union, and the Socialist deputy Seitz reported that assurances had been given by the Government that the peace negotiations were being hastened. The number of strikers in Wiener Neustadt alone is estimated at 100,000, and the movement is general all over Austria. The Socialist leaders have issued an exhortation to the strikes not to interfere with railway traffic, so as not to cut off the food supply, and also to continue work in the coal mines, and in all gas and electric works, to avoid causing suffering to the working classes.