Good Will

In Prague last week the inveterate optimism of those who regard international sports as international cure-alls was justified for once. An Austrian ice hockey team accomplished what statesmen had tried in vain--to make the Czechs love their former masters.

In the International Amateur Hockey tournament the Austrians won a last-minute victory over Sweden (whose team was suffering from a group hangover after a pre-game celebration). This left Czechoslovakia in top place.

Cheering wildly, Czechs in the grandstands threw their silver cigaret lighters to the Austrians. So many gifts of butter, meat, poultry, chocolate and liquor piled in on the Axa Hotel, where the Austrians were staying, that the management turned the lobby into a temporary warehouse. Flags flew in Brno. Pilsen begged the Austrians to visit its best hotel. And in two coal mines of Ostrava, miners promised to work two extra shifts digging coal for Austria. In hockey-happy Czechoslovakia the joke of the week was a cartoon showing a man carrying a bag overflowing with rare food. "Stop him," cries a woman. "He's a black marketeer." "Oh, no," comes the answer. "Just an Austrian."

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