Paris Peace Conf. 184.01102/341
Mr. Walter E. Bundy to Professor A. C. Coolidge25
Vienna, April 10, 1919.
Subject: Interview with Dr. Friedrich Austerlitz, editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, concerning the present political situation in German-Austria.
- 1.
- Dr. Austerlitz is the most optimistic man with whom I have spoken concerning the present political situation. He is further a man in closest connections with the industrial laborers of German-Austria.
- 2.
- He regards the present state of affairs as very serious; yet by no means hopeless, and that a change as came in Budapest is to be avoided by an immediate doubling of the bread and flour ration. Since July 28, 1914, the state of affairs in German-Austria has grown continually worse and, if very soon the people could have the present [Page 291] bread and flour ration doubled, they would become hopeful for it would be the first time since the outbreak of the war that their outlook has in the least improved. The first shipments of food should be sent to the greater industrial centers where there is greatest need and where there is the strongest inclination towards a revolutionary program.
- 3.
- The coal question is also serious, but in this matter the Entente cannot help as materially as in the bread question, for shortage of coal in Vienna is chiefly due to the lines of military occupation that have been set since the armistice. But a conclusion of a just peace would relieve this situation and give the greatest hope to the people.
- 4.
- Unemployment is extensive, but not now on the increase and the falling out of the habit of labor is not peculiar to German-Austria but common to all the nations engaged in the war, and a condition that has followed every extended military conflict in the past.
- 5.
- The “Volkswehr” (military guard of public safety), Dr. Austerlitz regards as out of the hands of the present government, but not at all dangerous. Its members are chiefly Vienna citizens interested in the maintenance of the public order and in the good wages and living which the members enjoy as compared with other occupations. Their discipline is by no means strict in the Prussian sense and they are banded together by common consent and with the feeling that they are rendering a public service in the execution of their public guard duty.
- 6.
- The change to a councils-republic in Bavaria Dr. Austerlitz does not regard as permanent and therefore of little consequence in bringing about any political change of a like character in German-Austria.
- 7.
- That if it comes to Bolshevism in German-Austria it will not be because the masses of the laborers are politically in sympathy with Bolshevism, but because they try it as a new experiment and method, because the other forms of social-democratic, Christian-socialistic, and concessionistic government have failed to improve the situation.
- 8.
- Dr. Austerlitz looks upon German-Austria as an outpost of greatest importance in the fight against Bolshevism in its westward campaign. German-Austria must be held and the Entente should do everything possible to help her stand and ward off a revolution.
- 9.
- The great sentiment of the laborers is that of hope and trust in the Entente, and that they are anxious to show the other nations that it pays better to trust to the fairness and good offices of the Entente than it does to make trouble. Any relief that may come now in the form of food or materials necessary to the resumption of labor will greatly strengthen this sentiment, and a revolution can certainly be avoided.
Walter E.
Bundy
- Transmitted to the Commission by Professor Coolidge under covering letter No. 209, April 11; received April 14.↩