RICH—ON SHILLINGS.

Shannon News, 9 January 1923, Page 3

RICH—ON SHILLINGS.

WHERE} IT IS GOOD TO BE ENGLISH

(By F. W. Doidge, late N.Z., in the ‘ ‘ Daily Express. ”)

Have you ever lived the champagne life on a beer income?

It can be done in Germany. That is if your income is English

Brewster could never have unloaded liis millions here- — not even if he hint worked overtime. For instance, Frankfort to Berlin i an all-night journey. Two first-class sleepers (separate compartments) cos'., in English money, 4s 6d each! An English tourist can reserve a whole first-class sleeping compartment, to himself and travel comfortably all night, for less than half what it would cost to reserve a room at an hotel.

Hotel charges vary, of course. A double room at Cologne costs 2000 marks (9s). At the Eden Hotel, on • of the finest in Berlin, the cost was naturally greater —4000 marks, plus -10 per cent. tax.

One does not necessarily have to rondo at sueli an expensive hotel. But f one has embarked on the champagne ifc —why not? CHEAP BREAKFASTS.

Munich was much cheaper than Berlin, although all the hotels were so full it was very hard indeed to find accomodation,.

Meals are cheap—to the Engl sh visitor. Breakfast in the best hotels costs 300 marks (Is (id). Mine cost me more, because a la. Horatio Bottomley, I drink champagne for breakfast. I have just balanced my accounts for a fortnight. My wife and I have visited the Bhinelands, Frankfort, Berlin, Munich, and Oberannnergau. We have stayed at the best hotels, travelled lust class, visited theatres, and done practically everything we had a mind to do.

And the total disbursement for a fortnight (for two) is 106,000 marks, which is exactly £3O! But if the present-day Germany is a paradise for the English tourist, it is surely Hades for the Hun. To go into the Hotel Adlon, in Berlin, is like going into the Savoy in London. You might, perchance, occasionally see an. Englishman among the hundreds who throng the Savoy. But in the crowded Adlon lounge you will never see a German. I had the pleasure of entertaining a cultured student of Gorman affairs at afternoon tea. at the Adlon. As I paid the bill (500 marks; otherwise 2s 3d) my guest remarked: “A German could not afford to pay that. The best paid editor in Berlin would not receive more than 10,000 marks per week; what you have paid would represent onc-twenticth of his week’s salary.”

FABULOUS WAGES. A guide who showed me over the delightfully interesting old quarter of Frankfort was beguiled iuto ail illuminating commentary: "True the German workman earns a fabulous wage—anything up to 2500 marks per week. But of what use is that if butter costs 300 marks per lb, meat 200 marks, sugar 1.30 marks, and an egg 15 marks?” Tlio people who really, suffer, how-

evere, are the professional class, ami those who, before the war, had what were considered satisfactory income-, and who now, on those incomes, cannot afford to buy meat even once a week. One does not need to be in the coir; try more than a week or two to realise that there is no truth in the story of great German prosperity. Two things are certain. The Hun .is humbled. And lie knows who won the war.