Germany 7 Years After.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1922, Page 3

Germany 7 Years After.

THE CHEMICAL AGE. (By G. H. Hughland). There was a time when Germany was the best customer Britain had. She used to buy year by year about sixty million pounds’ worth of goods.' That is the main reason why the condition of Central Europe can never he without a definite interest for the commercial community of Great Britain. Is there another country in the world of which so much has been written? Since the accession of the ex-Kaiser, one of the best advertisers of recent times, Germany drew a great deal of attention to herself chiefly by the spectacular growth of her fleet and her armies, and by her definite endeavour to capture the supremacy of the air. All the world knows what happened to that side of Germany, but now that it has dis appeared what kind of country is left? What is the spirit which animates its business men and its workpeople? Is there any reserve of strength which the shattering of German militarism lias left intact? Is she likely, cut off from her former sources of supply for raw materials and her former markets, to regain her position as one of the prominent commercial nations of the world ? “DOWN, BUT NOT OUT.” These arc some of the questions which thoughtful men in all countries are asking themselves —questions to which I endeavoured to got answers at first hand during an extended tour through Germany, in the course of which I had exceptional opportunities of coming into direct contact with many phases of industrial aud agricultural life. Nothing could be more prejudicial to a just appreciation of the present position of tho country and its prospects than to endeavour to sum up the impressions of such a tour in a word or two or a phrase or two. We have been told during the past twelve months by one publicist that Gciinanj is working hard; by another that she lias nothing to do. Some observers endeavour to impress us with the wealth of the country ; others with its poverty : If it wore part of my task to sum up my impressions in half a dozen woids 1 think they might he best. conveyed by the phrase that “Germany is down, but not out.” 1 will endeavour to give instances of my view that Germany is down, and secondly proofs ol the contention that she is not out. In this way readers will be able to lorm an unbiassed judgment themselves, for Hie problems with which the world

faced arc so serious that it becomes necessary to get at the iaets and draw conclusions from them with a judgment as far as possible unclouded hv the inevitable legacy of bitterness bequeathed by years of war.

Before leaving England a friend who l knows Germany well, having visited it constantly year by year both belore the war and since, said to me, “\ou will 1 find the country very much altered ; the f cities and towns are almost as untidy 1 and dirty as they arc in England.” 1 It seemed to me at the time that that : is the sort of comparison which is tin- I helpful, foolish, and in every sense odious. The comparing of one country witli another does not, after all, carry one very far. Each land has its own special characteristics. Its people have their own special qualities and defects. Great tracts of the manufacturing parts of England are, in reality, nothing more or less than enormous forges and foundries: hence our saying that where there’s muck there’s money. In the matter of cleanliness it is absurd to compare a land devoted to heavy engineering with one in which vast [ tracts of country are devoted to agriculture or the entertaining of visitors in health resorts; the comparison which is serviceable is that which can he made by a man who has been conversant with a country over a long term of years. It is the same when computing the value of an individual. Some men remain stationary; others develop. The really illuminating comparison is between the mature man of fifty and the youth of five-and-twciity. Has he progressed? How much or how little lias lie helped or hindered his generation ? THE GERMANY OF 1921 AND 1914. There are differences between the Germany of 1921 and the Germany of 1914, but there are still greater differences between the Germany of 1921 and the Germany of 1895. There are also some tilings which have remained and must inevitably remain unalteicd. 11k Hoheiizollerns have gone, hut seventy millions of people need some figure- . head, and time will show whether they are entirely satisfied with the Government which now represents them. The brilliant uniforms have given way to j the sober tones of civilian clothing, hut ( the discipline inculcated by fivc-and- i twenty years of intensive military training remains. On one point there is no uncertainty j whatever. When the armistice uas , signed the Germans, whether, they hap- j poned to the capitalists controlling enor- j mous enterprises or workers playing j their part in a humbler sphere, were under no illusions whatever as to the nature of the position in which they were placed. They knew perfectly well —how could it. he otherwise?—that whatever hopes they entertained for the future could he realised only by their own unaided efforts. They had | played their hand and lost it,, and they fmmd themselves internationally with-, out a friend in the world. The En- ; tente countries were their late enemies; j Austria had gone to pieces; Italy had deserted them: Russia was in ruins; their Colonies had been lost, not only , in the Old World hut in the New the balance of public opinion was against them. . ft is true bllat Germany is working ,| lar d, but that involves nothing very new.' German industry is proverbial. But there is another motive which actuates them at present. It is far more apparent to them than it is to ' some of the other nations, that they must either work or perish. What have thev but work to offer to the wor.d. i It is necessary that they should labour ! diligently with their bands if they are ‘ in course of time to regain the pros- ' perity which they threw away, when i they made an unsuccessful bid for the c hegemony of the whole world. And they are doing it. OhT SALE-SPRING DRAY AND HARNESS. Apply Occidental I Hotel, Hokitika,