GERMANS IN ITALY

Shannon News, 7 April 1926, Page 4

GERMANS IN ITALY

jL'JbUttVlist* Or* X*-*H x'jLiijll'b OF Thu ‘commercial , treaty recently signed between xtuly ana Germany was scarcely necessary irom Uerluany s point ot view, xtaly, as one ot tne Allies, had her share in winning cue war, but it is Germany wiio is securing tue iruits, ot peace, from cue Appenmnes id the Mediterranean, Italy is hooded with German goods, writes “An Angio-xtalian,” in the .'•Gaily Mail.” Ask tor aspirin, and ypu are promptly handed a famous German brand. Ash. for eau ,de : Golpgne, and you will receive without question an equally lamous product irom Cologne itself', with the label printed in German characters. Ask for a hair wash, and ypu will ire offered one of the Elbertelci productions. A small quest took me into an Italian toy shop tne other day. Ninety per cent, of the goods were of German origin. They can sell them retaii for less than the cost of production m Italy ,to say nothing of prolits. Du ring' the last season there has ueen an enormous increase in travellers from Germany. Naturally in a Holy Year a certain percentage were Homan Catholic pilgrims, but not a large percentage. The rest, and the majority, were the real brand of the prewar German tourist —haversack on the / back, hatless (men and women alike), anxious to get sunburn, and not overhandicapped in the way .of changes of clothes. Men, women, and children, they have filled certain hotels and pensions to overflowing. A party of seventy arrived at a pension one night. They slept four in a room; some of 'the others took the poor refuge of beds in bathrooms willingly; a few even were content to sleep in the cor-* ridors, it is stated. It is not for me to suggest a remedy. I simply state facts that have come under my own observation. The Italian housewife buys her stove frOm a German-supplied source. She soothes herself with drugs made in a German chemical factory. Her daughter scents her handkerchief with German perfumes. Her young children play with toys from Cjermany. Her* husband as often as not shaves himself with a close copy of some wellknown make of safety razor, which the Germans have flung in millions on the market. Then, if they wish to go out all together in the evening, it will not be difficult to sit in a cinema and watch a German film.

The more intelligent Italians resent this Germanisation of their trade and industry. One Italian business man was very bitter about it. “It is a bad thing for us in the long run,” he said, “but how is one to check this invasion? There are too many people here who work on the principle that commerce has no conscience.” He paused .a moment, and then said, half humorously and half sadly: “Why, even when one of our princesses married she chose a husband ‘made in Germany.’ ”