Austria and Hungary
Hungary has provided yet another example of the growing diffi- culty of Allied collaboration. Great Britain and the United States have now formally protested against the economic agreement, initialled in Moscow on August 27th, by which the Soviet Union receives what amounts to a half share in the whole of Hungarian economy. The protest, however, is based not on the content of the agreement but on the methods. by which it was reached, without consultation with the Allies who share with the Soviet Union responsibility for the future of Hungary, and before the terms of the peace treaty to be imposed on her have been settled. It is clear that unless some increase in mutual confidence between the Allies can be achieved, the attempt to control the ex-enemy countries on an Allied basis is bound to be a disastrous failure ; and the elaborate machinery of inter-Allied collaboration will become merely a com- plicated instrument of mutual obstructon and delay, at a time when speedy action is essential. Austria this week provides an illustra- tion of this. Here, tardily, the four Powers on the Control Council have at length recognised the Provisional Government of Dr. Renner ; but this step towards recovery is likely to be thwarted because Austria's economy is being undermined by uncontrolled inflation due to the flood of Reichsmarks entering the country from Germany. It appears that the Four Powers are unable or unwilling to reach agreement on methods by which this flood can be checIFed and the currency stabilised. One can imagine the malicious glee with which the late Dr. Goebbels would have received these evidences of disunity among the victorious Allies.
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