GERMANY'S TRADE

Southland Times, Issue 18849, 15 June 1920, Page 2

GERMANY'S TRADE

HER ECONOMIC FUTURE. Pan-Germans assert that the plans for the economic reconstruction of Europe which are now being discussed in the press are English, for France wishes to suppress Germany economically as much as possible, 1 while England secs the necessity for allowing Germany to get on her feet again. According to the Berlin correspondent of the Morning Post, they mistrust everything that comes out of England, however, for the English, they say, act only in English interests, and in this case, too, the English are animated by crass egotism. The Hamburger Nachrichten, one of the most prominent exponents of pan-German-ism, status in its commercial supplement that the English suddenly realise that it does not suffice to have knocked out all the German Michel’s teeth and that he must have a false set put in, for without teeth of some sort nobody can eat, and if a person does not eat lie cannot work. All nations now prostrate have, however, to work in the English interests, and hence Great Britain's desire to re-establish Germany economically. Pan-Germans regard this desire nevertheless as a gain for Germany, and with their instinct for "profitieren” they sock to place their feet firmly on the ground they consider they have gained. Dr Theodor Schiemann, Professor of Modern History at Berlin University, who for many years, conducted the Foreign Department of the Kreuz Zeitung, and was for a rime Rector of Dorpat University, explains in the Eokal Anzeiger that the British admission is to a certain extent, satisfactory, but it is quite characteristic of the mendacious and hypocritical procedure of Mr Lloyd George, and the ersatz Glemenccau, that these statesmen deliberately ignore the means best adapted to restore Germany to economic life. These tire, the learned professor states, the return of the portion of the commercial fleet on the outbreak’ of war found refuge assured by international law in neutral and especially American ports and the return of colonics of which Germany has been robbed. The least that Germany could claim in respect of colonies “of a spark of justice were still alive among our enemies” would be the return of East Africa, which was so gloriously defended ami the recognition of the right of possession of private persons in South-West Africa.

Profitieren, the gaining of some personal advantage out of every situation and opportunity, was a practice much favoured by Germans long before the war. During and since the war, however, it has been immensely improved upon until the Germans may now be described as masters in the art. What happened during the war may perhaps be considered as only natural in the circumstances, but what has happened since the war and is still happening is surely unparalleled in the history of any nation. To mention only the case of German babies, about which the Germans wail so bitterly it has been publicly admitted that the Germans sell their cows at immense profits to foreigners, whose currency has not depreciated as the mark has, and then complain to the world that German children and expectant mothers are languishing because there is no milk to give them.

Grain of certain kinds is sold at tremendous profit to foreigners, while in Germany itself the bread ration has had to be reduced. There is a terrible shortage of wood not only for fuel, but also for building purposes and for making furniture. The price of furniture, for example, has gone up 1000 per cent and is exceedingly scarce at that price in the country itself. And yet German manufacturers and producers have sold and are selling to foreigners their produce, which ought to be placed within the reach of the German people at prices which yield unprecedented profit. German shops are nearly 'enuded of their stocks and state that there is no prospect of obtaining fresh supplies and in the meantime people have to pay exorbitant prices for the few things they arc compelled to buy and can still obtain. Possibly Germans hope to utilise the depreciation of their money to make their former enemies pay part of their war debt.