14 AUGUST 1936, Page 2

Austria's Recovery There is reason for regret as well as

satisfaction in the ending of the League of Nations' financial tutelage of Austria. Dr. Rost van Tonningen, the League's financial representative at Vienna, has decided that, owing to Austria's financial recovery, his services are no lOngir necessary ; revenues are satisfactory and increasing, unemployment falling, the public debt-stable, an arrange- ment has been come to with the creditors of the Credit Anstalt. Thus Austria, which since 1922 has been in need of the League's advice and assistance, is now once more in a position to manage her own affairs. It is a real satisfaction to know that a country bankrupted by the War and the first to collapse at the beginning of the depression, which has only barely been kept alive by repeated loans and credits, has now achieved recovery. It is less satisfactory to know that financial progress has so far had little effect upon standards of life ; and that prosperity depends largely on her precarious rela- tions with Italy and Germany. It is a pity, too, that prosperity should end the necessity for the League's collabo- ration. Its financial services to Austria at any rate stand as a model for future international co-operation. * * *