VISIT TO LEIPZIG FAIR

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 34, 4 November 1919, Page 10

VISIT TO LEIPZIG FAIR

[ SOME OF THE EXHIBITS e GOODS AND PRICES (By Charles Tower in the "Daily Mail.") Leipzin, September 6. Pile; of English cigarettes and English tins of rations were the first tbing3 .that caught my eye on the way from g the huge station (a monument of Kaiser.s ism) to the narrow streets in tho middle of the old town where the fair is concentrated. Rations are offered at 6s. i, a tin, and I was told that they enjoy a if "furious"' sale. (Yes, I know that 6 '• marks aro now equivalent to about Is. ' Gd.. but not to tho German who earns l| and spends them.) ~ English cigarettes—all the familiar a. kinds—wore being sold at Is. to ss. a t packet of 10. There was a lingo amount of cheap cigarettes put on the Dutch r market a year ago under English names and in English-looking packets. Now these aro on sale in GermanT r.t prices r oriual to those of real English products. But you can buy genuino English cigarettes by tens, thousands, or truckloads. 0 An English traveller was offered 30 truekl - loads, delivery free on the Rhine; and a some of the Munich papers publish truckload offers daily. These supplies are no doubt merely tho outward" sign of the winding-up on the Rhine. a American Army chocolate (225. a lb.) I was another feature, while haHalions of j noisy street hawkers offered the Bcouri, imrs of capfeens. i. Up to Wednesday night 120.000 visit- , ors took the me c s badge which pives 1 enlrv In the exhibition rooms; about ( RO.OOO produced the necessary evidence ' t.hnt they were accredited buyers; the I rest were journalists or exhibitors.-Tho increase over IMS is about 25,000. r No British Exhibits. It_ was_ hard to obtain statistics of ' foreign visitors nnd buyers; there were '■ "many" Dutch, "quite a number" of Italians, "moro Americans thnn expeclj ed." and'"several" English. But. unless they had gone before I arrived, there wore no official British exhibits nnd I only one American, a hoot iind s-lioo firm in the leather section, which did good j bus ; ncss at liiifo prices. (\ pair of handmade children's boot? in Berlin mnv c cost about M1v.450: ,m 10s. nominally, or about M 10s. Nt the present exchange!) ) Electrical products, especially, lam 6 told, household manufactures 'such.. as. electric tea-ketiles. coffee machines, irons," nnd electrical manicure machines, were 1 much in demand. Foreign buyers may have suspected thorn of having second- ' rate parts, but here, os in most of the r foreign business, the low German exchange told its tale. A kettle that would bo dear retail at Mk.loo (nominally .55) is too obviously cheap at tho real price I 'about £1). Cutlery looks as if it might early rel sume its international competition, when > nna.l and labour problems are settled. Manufacturers in some branches admit that dumping of articles 'cheaply ana' in ; mass will nieet with official opposition ; abroad, so manv of them are attending closely ,to appearance, hoping that this will presently recapture old markets. Textile business was necessarily handicapped. Raw materials are lacking, substitutes no longer find even a German • market, and both appearance and qnal- | ity (except, I was told, in some silk ■ goods) are unattractive Rubber has re,appeared in all sorts of-samples Last. I went to foyland. I could iudge of prices only from markoo.' retail figures. I .happen to have been in search of toys in London's toylaud a few weeks ago, and by dividing the Leipzig prices by four (to correspond roughly with the exchange) I was able to draw some comparisons. Mechanical toys, ns far as I could see, worked out cheaper; but carts, animals on wheels, and so forth, seemed to me nothing like so well made, and, despite high Lontfnn prices, no cheaper. If the mark had its full par value of Is. they would be about five times as dear. Barrack-room Tone. . While interpreters were provided _ in almost all languages, special meetingplaces in hotels, with free information and so forth, were aranged, in addition to rhose for the neutral countries, for the Czeeho-Slovak Republic, German Austria. Finland, and Poland. The Leipzig atmosphere is unpleasant. It is the only town in Germany since tho armistice where I have met with tho ola' insolence, the barrack-room lone, nnd the once notorious "What do you want?" of , some shop-walkers. T sincerely trust, for the benefit of British trade, that German business men and German commercial travellers may have so thoroughly acquired the drill-sergeant manner that tliev cannor nut it off. For German hectoring hns had its day. In conclusion, why Leipzig? That much German business, like German banking, will tend to gravitate towards ' the Khine. with its great river and rail facilities, docs not appear nn improbabln assumption, now that the. gilt of Kaiserdom no longer covers tho lath and plaster of Eastern Germany.