1 JULY 1938, Page 26

HOLIDAYS IN AUSTRIA

[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]

SLR,—For British people to refuse to take their holidays in Austria is only to add to the hardships of the Austrians.

My husband and I have just come back from a motoring tour in Austria. Everywhere we were welcomed and the dearth of English tourists deplored. It cannot be any consolation to a suffering Austria to feel ostracised by the world. Though it is obviously unwise to ask questions and dangerous to offer sym- pathy surely even a mere presence can be comforting at such a time as this.

It is therefore possible that one may like to holiday in-Austria —not because one has the hide of a rhinoceros and is imper- vious to unhappiness—but because one is anxious to show that, whatever indignity Austria may suffer, nothing can alter our relationship with the Austrians themselves and the fundamental sympathy between us.—Yours truly,