GERMANY TO-DAY.

Otaki Mail, Volume XXIII, 1 December 1920, Page 4

GERMANY TO-DAY.

A BUSY NATION. ( KESPECT FOE ENGLAND. “Germany is very busy,’’ remarked i Mr J. C. Cooper, who has just returned j to Masterton from abroad, to an ! “Age’’ reporter. “Her factories and j coal mines are- working at high, pressure, while as much land as possible I is under cultivation; the crops are poor, although not so poor as in France.” These observations eon- ! veyed to the mind of .the interviewer an impression of prosperity, but it was j soon dispelled. “Can you call the j country prosperous,” he asked, “when . vou see men in good circumstances | walking about with their feet half on . the ground, their boots so patched, or minus heels, that they were almost j unrecognisable 1 That is the condition j 1 throughout Germany to-lay. ” Con- ! I I inuittg, ho said that*the indemnity was | j a millstone about the neck of Ger- 1 many. Were it not for the indemnity j j Germany would soon right herself, and j : we would be disposing of wool to her j ' at, very satisfactory prices. To his j . mind the indemnity was not a good j 1 proposition. Mr Cooper said the eon- f dition of the people, the emaciated ! ; children, and the maimed men and j i youths, were heart-rending. At least, j one-third of the population would j f never recover from the effects of the ! J war. He mentioned that an Englishj man was held in much respect in Ger- | many, and treated with much courtesy, I whereas there was bitter feeling ,! against France. An official informed him that, there was every likelihood of *; another revolution to replace the j Hohenzollerns on the throne. At heart j Germany was imperialistic; she was not Republican, The ex-Kaiser was * still the idol of his people. The only ; fault, he committeed, or rather mistake

he made, was that ho -lost the war. The Germans did not- like the cxCrown .Prince, but towards the exKaiser and the House of Ilohenzollc-ru they wore loyal. Mr Cooper, who spent most of his time in the industrial centres in Rhineland and Westphalia, found that the exchange rate had really altered very little during the past twelve months. The mark, instead of one shilling, was only the equivalent of a penny. He found the German people courteous in the extreme, and evidently keenly desirous of regaining the confidence and esteem of Great Britain, presumably for trading purposes. Considerable quantities of German goods had already arrived, and were on sale in England, but not always branded as such. Germany was doing her utmost to recover from the ravages of war, although heavily burdened.