Vienna Students Lack Food, Says Austrian Pre-Med

"Before the war the students used to discuss Kant and Goethe; now we talk only about milk, cake, and candy," Miss Verena Von Lieben of the University of Vienna said ruefully yesterday.

"The food situation is just as bad as it was during the war; we still get only 900 to 1200 calories a day," stated the blond medical student, who recently arrived in this country with a view to continuing her university work and of informing American students about need abroad.

Living On Beans, Peas

"Many of the students go into the country on weekends and work for farmers in order to get food-why, we were living on beans and peas," Miss Von Lieben smiled. Her description of university life in modern Vienna was a bleak one.

Forced to clear away the rubble left from 26 bomb hits on their buildings, the students toiled seven hours a day for over a month to make the school ready for occupancy.

"I am so impressed by your window panes here," she exclaimed. "There are none left in our university; we have boarded the windows up because the glass is all broken."

University Crowded

"And we are so crowded," she continued, "that one has to arrive at the lecture hall two hours before the professor in order to find a place. Students sit on the floor, on window sills, and stand out in the hall during every class. One day it was so crowded that the lecturer was not able to carry the demonstration skeleton to the platform."

Laying much of the blame for the current food shortage at the feet of the Nazis, who during the occupation disrupted the nation's economy, Miss Von Lieben stated that the American occupation forces, as well as English, Russian and U.N. sources are contributing large quantities of foodstuffs to infertile, mountainous Austria.

The Students were very excited when the last shipment of W.S.S.F. food came to the university," she recalled. "I remember how they tore open the packages immediately, and drank evaporated milk while the lecturer was talking."