LIFE IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1920, Page 9 (Supplement)

LIFE IN GERMANY.

SIGNS OF RECOVERY RAILWAYS REORGANISED. GENERAL FALL IN PRICES. Returning to Uermany after ail absence of setciai months, 011 c notices at once that lniu-h has changed in the interval, writes a,, correspondent from Berlin. In si- far as they lie on the surface, the fresh symptoms point to re- ! cover)' of health and strength. It is evident- that the old habits of industry and order are re-asserting themselves. There lias been a general washing and brushing-up. -Streets are cleaner, housefronts are being repainted, and the public services are working with something like the old punctuality and efficiency. In a word, Germany is settling down into her former routine, and, were it not for the political factors! in the case, would soon be running smoothly. The improvement is specially noticeable on the railways. On the main lines the trains are running punctually to the second. Indeed they are doing more. Coming up here from Hamburg, I was. landed at the Lehrter Station twelve minutes before schedule time, and I am told that similar experiences are not it all uncommon. Restaurant cars arc found on all the so-called "through" trains. Ther belong to the company which was formed during the war to take tlfc .place of 'the wagons, etc. The fare they offer is good and abundant. Porters and cabs are no longer so difficult to find, or so incalculable in their charges. As the services have been greatly reduced, the third and fourth-class carriages are nearly always uncomfortably crowded, "but- the enormous increase in fares lias eased the pressure on the other classes. In slow trains there is rarely lack of secondclass accommodation, and a first-class passenger can nearly always count on ■•o'uring a seat. On the other hand, lit-t-lo has as yet been done to refurnish the rolling stock. The upholstery is threadbare, the woodwork <frfi?s out for paint, and a window with a strap is a notable exception. This is even the case on express trains between the principal towns, and on some of the secondary lines the carriages arc quite lamentable in their shabbinoss.

What js being done, to polish up the railways is, no doubt, the, work of the new Minister of Communications, General f.rocncr, who made a great name for himself as a traffic manager during the war. The speeding-up of the trains is secured bv piindtunliay pivmiums. Whether these <ire compatible' with reasonable economy of coal is perhaps open to doubt, Manv trains seem to be run in duplicate even on local lines. Returning to Berlin a few days ago From a -■mall town about 40 or "if! miles away. I found T could Travel by an ''advance" train which left 20 minutes before that scheduled in Hie time-tables.

WELL-"* POCKED SHOPS Shop stocks have expanded greatly during the past few months. When I left Oertnanv the outcry about the "clearance sal?." which it. was said was going to drain the country of its wares, was at its height. At that time bare windows and empty shelves seemed to justify the chorus of protest. Now there is no longer anj" lack of wares in the shops. Rather the contrary, for increase in supply has been accompanied by a falling-off in demand, and the holders of goods have in many cases been forced to moderate their prices in order to release their capital. This is particularly obvious in the leather trades. Shop-window announcements give notice of "quite enormous reductions' in boots, portmanteaux, handbags. and purses. Some of these articles are now being sold at not much more than one-third the prices of six months ago. In clothing the drop has not been nearly so pronounced. The replacement of foreign goods by those of home manufacture is very obvious. At the beginning of the year the better tobacconists' shops showed little else but English cigarettes in their windows. These have now almost completely disappeared. They have been driven out by the high price; resulting from the fall of the mark, and also to some extent by the recrudescence of the cigar. At the beginning of the year cigars were .very scarce, and queues could be seen daily outside the shops where the cheaper varieties were sold. Now cigars are abundant, and a good deal cheaper.

LOCAL CHOCOLATE REAPPEARS. In the confectioners' windows one notices at once that German chocolate is fast expelling its foreign rivals. A year ago such a thing as German chocolate did not exist. On the other hand, the whole country seemed to be inundated with foreign chocolate. It was piled high in shop windows, hawked ia the streets from trays and barrows, and lustily cried on the railway stations. Most of it was Swiss or butch, but certain British. French and American firms were well represented. The old German makes seem to be well up to their former quality, and, just as in England, there is a large number of new brands which nobody ever heard of before the war. Doubtless it is the shortage of sugar which has made chocolate so popular a sweetmeat. Though the prices of some other articles of food have risen, the general tendency has been slightly downwards. Of course temporary improvements on the surface mean very little so long as Germany as a State can be kept going only by the printing press and a continual watering of her currency, ly many cases, too, what appear to be favorable symptoms arc really consequences of the industrial slump, which has already largely unemployment and may assume very serious dimensions before the winter is over. BITTERNESS AGATNST PRANCE:

Another change which does not angnr well for the future is the aggravation of the bitterness against France. Almost every German, man or woman, with whom I have talked since my return to this country, has given spontaneous expression to this feeling. Six months ago it was confined to a comparatively small political section of the .population. Jfoiv it seems to be the common property of the entire people. It is recreating the feeling of national unity which was almost completely destroyed by the war and the revolution'." A year ago the Germans directed their hatred almost exclusively against one another. Now the first brewing is reserved fov the French and the Poles. Open expressions of animosity against the British are very rare. This is far from being merely the result of sclf-inierest»d calculation or interpretation of our policy. It is rather the echo from those portions of the oeennied area where we rule the roost. The excesses of the French colonial troops against wgrnn