Abstract

Austria - International Chessboard

The article presents information on various socio-political developments in Austria after the 2nd World War. Nobody in Austria is taking seriously any longer the negotiations for an Austrian peace treaty. The Austrians know perfectly well that only the British among the Allies want to leave Austria and perhaps not even they. The Americans or at least certain very important Americans, clearly want to stay, and the French make no secret of the fact that they would consider the evacuation of Austria a first-rate mistake. If one investigates this matter of taxes, one finds that while direct taxes are as high as in England and perhaps higher, indirect taxes are immeasurably lower. Wages are not high, the low pay of small government officials, $8.40 a week is not uncommon makes inevitable a certain amount of corruption. Recently there was considerable excitement in the Tyrol on the arrival of the fifty-first trainload of Austrian war prisoners from Russia. The papers declared that 1,000 Austrians were still held in a camp at Stalingrad. The prisoners themselves said that they had had to work very hard while in Russia, they were happy to be home and preferred not to dwell on the bad days of their captivity.