Is Germany Bankrupt?

Hokitika Guardian, 21 February 1922, Page 4

Is Germany Bankrupt?

A NEW ZEALANDER’S EXPERIENCE.

CHRISTCHURCH, Feb. 18

Mr 0. Bush, well-known in commercial circles in New Zealand, recently returned from an extended visit to America, England, and the Continent (including Germany and Austria), and had a good deal of interesting information to relate to a pressman the other

Mr Bush, who represents a well..nown linen firm, s aid that the linen trade had suffered by the war. The particular kind of flax used in the manufacture of linen formerly came from Russia, but owing to the revolution and continuous fighting supplies fiom that country had been cut off altogether. The supply of flax fram Ireland had been more or less fitful owing to the unsettled state of things there for some years past. Holland and Belgium were also suppliers in a- limited way. The industry was now gradually getting back to normal,.but it would be some time yet before it would get back to pre-war conditions. As to the state of Germany, Mr Pish said that Mr A. E. Thomas had been writing a, series of artieles in the Ncrtheliffo Press depicting Germany as in a very bad way, through strikes and short-time conditions, saying everything to convince England that Germa.ny was cn the verge of bankruptcy. But when he was in Germany he found the oondit:ons to be exactly the reverse of what these articles were conveying to British pies. Everyone was well fed and well clothed, the factories were working doube shifts, the theatres and restaurants were always filled with people who seemed to have plenty of money to spend. Indeed, there was an air oi general prosperity everywhere. One thing he noticed wherever he went wag that no children were to he seen at play. Evidently every pair of hands in the country was needed to meet the industrial demand. He know that was so, because he was associated in Germany, with buyers from Marshal Field’s (in America), and they had diffi'eul'ty in getting delivery of la piers simply on account of the big demand that was being experienced.

Mr Bush also stated that he and three companions dined one evening at the Hotel Adalon (the ex-Kaiser’s hotel), and had the very best of dinners with champagne and other wines, and tho total e'ost in English money for all four was 16s. What could be done with the vagaries of exchange was related to him by one visitor to Germany, who having cached in with -the exchange at £BOO marks to the £, insured his life for 20 years for a considerable sum with a German insurance company, paying up al] premiums at once for the full term. The only tiling he risked was that the company might fail, but he did not consider that contingency the least likely.