AUSTRIA: Candy from Strangers

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Abductions of anti-Communist Viennese by what the press delicately calls "one of the occupying powers" have recently risen to the rate of one a week. Sounding somewhat like an anxious mother telling her children not to take candy from strangers, Austria's Ministry of the Interior last week counseled: 1) insist on seeing the badge of any agent who approaches you claiming to be a policeman; 2) do not enter any car unless the agent in charge is a legitimate policeman; 3) leave your name, the name of the agent and the number of his car with a third person.

How much good these helpful hints accomplished was demonstrated one day last week when Russian soldiers seized a middle-aged woman at 9 a.m., at one of Vienna's busiest intersections. She struggled desperately as she was pulled into the Russian jeep. To establish her identity, she tossed her handbag to a bewildered Austrian policeman. The Russians patiently stopped their jeep, and took the handbag from the policeman. Then they drove off with the woman.