Germany

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 55, 8 March 1915, Page 5

Germany

THE FOOD SUPPLY.

RIOTS IN THE WEST.

fIINiTKD Peeks Association. | Copenhagen, March 0

There arc heavy food exports from all parts of Scandinavia to Germany. Six thousand cars are awaiting discharge orders. The Associated Bacon Factories have censured their fellowmembers for trading with Germany, who offers high prices.

REDUCTION IN WEEKLY FLOUR

ALLOWANCE.

(Received 8.40 a.m.) London, ,March 7

Copenhagen advices show that in Berlin the individual allowance for flour has already been reduced from 2000 to 1400 grammes weekly. The Cologne Gazette, reviewing the situation, says that after seven mouths of war the German labor market has maintained conditions generally favor, able. Both goods and passenger traffic on the railways almost equalled that of 1914. The Gazette argues that these modest"facts are significant as news of victory, as showing that the country's economic strength is unbroken. Serious irots have taken place in the western cities in,- Germany, owing to the scarcity of potatoes. Crowds hesieged the' markets in Cologne and looted the shops. The police and military used swords and rifle-butts. Hundreds of women and children were injured.

LOSSES ESTIMATED AT THREE MILLION. Paris, March 6. Another official estimate of the German losses were at least three millions, excluding sick. The calculation is based on the fact that ten regiments lost 36,281 officers and men in five months.

GERMANY'S CASH NEEDS. A new proof of Germany's_ need for cash is supplied by her action in regard to the stock of rough diamonds from German South-west Africa (says the Daily Express). The normal value is 40s to 46s a carat, and it is estimated that about one million and a half carats are at present stored in Berlin. The demand for rough diamonds has naturally ceased, and the British Diamond Syndicate has not offered any for sale since the outbreak of the struggle. The Express understands, from a high official source, that to secure cash the German Government syndicate has offered its stock to an American concern for 20s a carat—more than 50 per cent, under the value.

GERMAN TRADE PARALYSED, Few people ill the Dominion have any idea of the paralysing effect of the British blockade on Germany's economic life. The Grand Fleet under Sir John Jellicoe absolutely controls the situation, and this accounts, no doubt, for the frenzied Anglophobia which all classes in the Fatherland have developed. Their self-control is completely destroyed, with the result that publicists" of every type, from the erstwhile grave professor to the irresponsible ex-naval captain, vie with one another in inventing news and applying terms of opprobrium to the perlidious sons of Albion. On the very eve of war the economic position of Germany was the subject of grave consideration, and the Berlin paper Voerwaerts dealt with the question in a lengthy article, too long to reproduce, but most interesting at this stage of affairs. Shortly put, Vorwaerts assessed the trade which would be interrupted, if war with England eventuated, at £700,000,000 per annum. This, of course, included export as well as import goods. "A glance," it asserted, "reveals the frightful seriousness of the situation. What is the position, for example, of the German textile industry if it must forego the oversea importations of cotton, jute, and wool? What could wo do in the event of a war of long duration without these raw materials which in one year amount in value to £-11,500,000? It may also be mentioned that Germany received in 1913 from the United States £15,000,000 worth of copper; and, further, that the petroleum import would.be as good as shut down. The Argentine alone sent £3,550,000 worth of hides, saltpetre from Chile was worth £6,550,000, and outtotal imports of wheat, which would all cease, was £IS,GOO,OOO. There will also be a stoppage of eggs worth £4,000.000; milk and butter, £3,150.000; and bay, £1,600,000, from Russia. Lard to the value of £5,000,000 comes from the United States, and rice to the amount of £2,300,000 from British India. Coffee, which is almost a national beverage in Germany, is required to the extent of £7,500,000, so that no one. who contemplates without prejudice these few facts, to which many others can be added, will be able lightly to estimate the economic consequences of war."