GERMANY INTACT

Hokitika Guardian, 25 January 1921, Page 1

GERMANY INTACT

(Air G. Valentine Williams, formerly correspondent of Reuter’s Agency in Berlin.)

FR A NKFORT-ON-AfAIN, Nov. 16.

A great surprise awaiting me on my return visit io Germany lias been the comparative efficiency of the German railways. A very few months ago, by all accounts, chaos on the German railways—once Germany’s legitimate pride was complete. As the result of the war aiul the cbnvtilsidiis of defeat, rol-ling-stock and permanent way were in a shocking condition, while trains were few, overcrowded and liable to extravagant delays. The progress made by the Germans in remedying tliis state of affairs is renal rkalile.

In travelling right across Germany during the past few weeks T have found trains running; into time and smObtlily, and the Carriages clean, while the provision of polders and cabs at tlie great railway centres has been a grerit dciil better than anything of the kind tit railway termini at home in Great Britain.

I travelled. it is true, only by express, fol - ,1 had neither the occasion nor the tiiiie to use the slow train (Person-o»-Ziige), which, being cheaper are more largely patronised by the middleclass Gordian. TKc sleeping cars both first add second class were well warnic'd and the beds had lined sheets. There was rit'ither soap lior towels, both of which articles arc fottrid on a very restricted scale id post-war Germany. Id both first and second-class carriages it was obvious that the seats had been repaired with one of those ingenious German imitations which neither look nor feel like leather. But the dnholstery was neat and the floors had been swept. Not all express trains are heated and in the cold snap we have been having in Germany, night travelling without a sleeper is generally a chilly business. Bttt exjites.ses (“D-Zuge”) are seldom crowded owing to the High fares and, except for the cold, travelling is quite cOihfortable. The restaurant cars are ntddiug, and the food is as good as ever, while the prices of meals are dot high as German prices gd to-day.

Conditions off ti c main lines arc not so good. Bolling-sleek' is in deed of repair, and the going is pretty humpy. I had occasion to travel one day in the Berlin Stadt-Bahn (.Vletidpdlitnii Bailway'i ami Wits generally surprised to find that the carriages were in a passably good state. The readjustment of the social standard Of Germany,is curiously demonstrated in railway travelling. Only Sehieber (profiteers) and Auslander (foreigners), say the Huns, travel firstclass to-day. Germans who before the war went first now travel second, or even third, class, while the fourth class which was formerly frequented only by the very poor, by needy students and the like, is now crowded with the blackcoated class,.