GERMAN FINANCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 24

GERMAN FINANCE

BUILT ROUND RE-ARMING

"Should England Lend Money to Nazi Germany?" is the subject of a sensational article which fills nearly a whole issue of "The Banker," one of the most responsible organs of the City of London, writes A. G. Gardiner in the "San Francisco Chronicle." Starting from the proposition that "Germany is a bottomless pit,", the author sets out to analyse each phase of Germany's financial, military, and economic life since Hitler took control, basing his examination only on official German figures and giving for the first time a reliable account of German Government expenditure between 1932-37. The theme of the document is the concentration of Germany on the single purpose of preparing for war. Dealing with the financial aspect, the writer shows that expenditure between 1932 and 1937 has increased from 6,700,000,000 Reichsmarks to 18,800.000,000 Reichsmarks. The share of civil expenditure in this increase does not exceed 1,100,000,000 marks per annum. The expenditure on armaments has risen from 3,000,000,000 marks in 1933-34 to 12,000,000,000 in 1936-37. Thus, in four years, Germany has spent about 12,500,000,000 Reichsmarks on arms, or an average of 3,125,000,000 Reichsmarks per annum. .This is the cost at which Dr. Schacht has financed the most gigantic armament programme ever undertaken. In doing this he has mortgaged the future by accumulating an enormous floating debt, through the supersession of private initiative by State control, the rapid depletion of resources inherited from the past, together with a slow but steady decline in the standard of living of the population and a growing economic, isolation from the rest of the world. TOO MUCH HASTE. From this analysis of cost, the author proceeds to an examination of the vast military machine that has been created, estimating that Germany today can put 1,200,000 in the field. He is critical of the air force which has been improvised at too hurried a speed. "Prototypes" are not sufficiently tested before mass production starts, with the result of frequent inefficiency. The output of 'planes far exceeds the number of trained pilots, among whom the mortality—again owing to haste—is extravagantly high. And there is lacking co-ordination between the army and the air force, the latter not under the Reichswehr but under General Goering.

The economic revolution in Germany has been directed solely to military ends. Industry has been socialised, a vast bureaucracy has sprung into being, and business has become a ceaseless conflict with a bewildering multitude of authorities and an unending avalanche of regulations. "It has been estimated that between 700 and 1000 special ordinances dealing with economic control come into force every week." For example, a certain deal involved the purchase of 10,000 pounds of wool, against which German toys were exported. For : this, 680 forms had to be filled in and it was eighteen months before the bureaucratic formalities were completed. An inquiry of a south-western Chamber of Commerce recently disclosed the fact that 75 per cent, of the clerical work in typical industries was occupied with compliance with regulations.