Suspiciously full accounts of strikes in Austria last week have
come through Germany and Holland. The strikers complained of the reduction in the flour ration. On Saturday last their leaden were received by the Premier, who was moat conciliatory. He declared that the Government were anxious for peace, and had nc intention of making annexations at Russia's expense. It is con- ceivable that German Austria, which is very short of food, haabeen affected by the Russian revolutionary virus, and that the Govern- ment are seriously alarmed at the unrest. It is-more probable that the Government, as they did in 1907 in connexion with the uni- versal suffrage measure, have deliberately promoted a general• strike for political purposes, their object being in this case to exert pressure on the military party at Berlin, whose excessive demands have delayed the peace negotiations at Brest-Litovsk. Austria has far less to gain than Germany by prolonging the war, and the strike, on this theory, is meant as a warning to the Hindenburg clique.
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