GERMANS IN HOLLAND.

Hokitika Guardian, 27 November 1923, Page 4

GERMANS IN HOLLAND.

DISPLACING HOME WORKERS. AMSTERDAM. Aug. 10. Holland is .suffering from an excess >f Gormans, and the complaints one hears here should he sufficient warning to those who desire to see the barriers let down at the English Channel ports. Naturally every German who can do so wants to leave Germany. Literally scores of clerks, waiters, hotel servants, and other workers have appealed to mo during niv .six months’ stay in the Rliur for advice how to get abroad. But England is barred to them, and as the voyage to America costs an appalling sum in marks, comparatively few can escape by the latter route to a land of free competition with the natives. So hundreds turn to Holland, and this little country is overstocked with them. It is very easy to cross* the frontier, and once here they are willing to work lor less than the Dutch will accept for a day's work. I heard protests all the way from the frontier where I crossed from occupied territory. I was greeted at one hotel by a chambermaid singing ".Deutschland ulier Alles,” for the benefit of a furious French tourist, whose protest fell on (leaf ears. I was served at Doom by an Austrian, while a liitle German band—the kind that used to intest English seaside places until they were called to the colours —played German airs under the trees. I tounrl German clerks in business houses and humble, aUontive. illpaid Gorman assistants iu some ol the shops, speaking two or three languages fluently besides lheir own. and eager to work harder and longer than any Hollander, and

lor less money. There is another side in this invasion of Holland. Yon *ee tangible proofs »if (in' solid prosperity <>l (JormMii manufacturers and business men who are too poor al home to help their ( nunfry pay its just debts, let alone limit own taxes.

German mornr-cars are everywhere. They are sold here m florins, and the money remains in Dutch banks to the credit o I'tiic shipper. German goods of all kinds pour in by the only ‘‘lrcc railway roiiie still open, and by sea. Business is transacted on a gold basis. |'. German packets are to be searched thoroughly, some method must ha loiind jf uncovering the wealth stowed aval to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and t.no lesser centres of commerce, in Dos

country. The German tourist season is in lull •swing. Felioveningeii. the only western seaside resort oi any size, which ,’S open to pleasure-seekers from ihe Fatherland, is a kind of German Deanidle even the excessively high list of living does not deter the pmlireel’s who -warm here Irnm occupied territory and the rest cl ITus.-in, from -pending money freely on a gold basis. Ami th-.v do iheius-lves well. ton meet lheir heavily laden motor-ears on every road that leads from the German frontier. Let the Ruhr work out its own destiny and the mark mil what l.iutvstie capers it will. With his lorDum tucked snugly away where French bayonets cannot prv it loose, the ‘ompm- ,.(.,;( German with an anchorage in 11' - land fames the future with equanimity, lie nitty cry in public, hut he laughs heartily u hen he is alone.