LIFE IN GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 October 1922, Page 3

LIFE IN GERMANY.

WELL-FED, HAPPY PEOPLE. ACTIVITY IN INDUSTRIES. CONTRAST IN NORTHERN FRANCE. “The German people, as a people, are better fed, better clothed and happier than the people of any other country I visited,” said Mr. J. J. McGrath, barrister, of Wellington, who arrived by the Ruahine this week from England. Mr. McGrath and his wife have been away a little over 10 months, and their tour included Egypt, Palestine, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain. Nearly five weeks were spent by the travellers in Germany, most of the time being occupied in motoring. Everywhere the country was closely cultivated, and all the factories, judging by the smokestacks, were working at full pressure. No signs of poverty were discernible. the people being remarkably well-clad and nourished. They all seemed to be working hard and they were to be seen in the fields from daylight until 10 o’clock at night. The shops were (full of beautiful manufactured goods. The only trouble for the German people was the great fall in the value of the mark.

Living in a first-class hotel in Germany cost only 5s a day, in spite of the fact that visitors were charged double the rates for German people.. The railway fares would shock the New Zedland authorities. Imagine travelling 400 or 500 miles for* only 5s 6d! Yet that is what an all-day journey from Munich to Dresden costs. Tn Munich 14 bottles of beer, “the finest beer in the world,” said Mr. McGrath, could be bought for Is. and the finest cigars he had ever smoked in his life cost only one penny each.

Mr. and Mrs. McGrath were in Berlin when Dr. Rathenau was .assassinated, and they managed to get away only a few hours before martial law was proclaimed. The intense hatred which the German people had for France was exceeded only by their detestation of England. When Mr. McGrath called upon the German Consul in London for a passport, the Consul inquired whether New Zealand people were as intensely patriotic as they were during the war. That plainly showed his opinion of New Zealand.

In contrast to the undisturbed condition of Germany was the desolate appearance of Northern France. After leaving Germany, Mr. and Mrs. McGrath went to Verdun and travelled along the battlefields, north of Franco, and in Belgium. Not only were the buildings in Verdun, Rheims, Armentieres, Lille and other places smashed, but the country. too. was destroyed. There wore huge shell holes everywhere and millioiTs of tons of barbed wire. The people were poorly elad and poorly nourished.