The Waikato Times TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1940 GERMANY’S NEW ECONOMIC “DISORDER”

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21178, 30 July 1940, Page 4

The Waikato Times TUESDAY, JULY 30, 1940 GERMANY’S NEW ECONOMIC “DISORDER”

When a propaganda campaign is based and sustained upon lies it is difficult to preserve consistency. Thus the German-controlled radio at Antwerp apologised lor the disappearance of butter from the Belgian markets and declared it was “due to the fact that a gang of criminal dealers had purchased the butter at the dairies and from the farmers.” That might have sounded plausible enough had not the Berlin radio almost simultaneously announced triumphantly a “special addition to the butter ration of 125 grammes a head of the German population.” Apparently the “criminal gang” has been identified. Germany, the conqueror, is indeed giving its victims ample proof that their future is to be subservient to the needs of the German people. Hunger is facing many countries in Europe in the coming winter, and Germany intends that she be the last to suffer. She has the power and the will to extract the last ounce from the defeated countries regardless of the sufferings of the people who were foolish enough to oppose Hitler’s will. Over the greater part of Europe the wheat crop is exceptionally poor as the result of disturbed manpower and unfavourable weather. Those countries which are still not enslaved are torn between threats from Germany and their natural desire to conserve sufficient stocks for the winter. Those who have been defeated by the German army have no choice. If their goods are not surrendered voluntarily they are taken by force. Against this background Germany is seeking to extend her commercial influence abroad. . She is promising profitable sharing in the German economic scheme during and after the war, but behind the promise there is also a threat to those who withhold co-operation. Germany seeks trade on her own terms. In the first place she values her own currency so favourably to herself that trade becomes a farce. And she will exchange not what her customers desire but what she desires to sell. That is the economic future which Germany offers the world. At base it is unsound, unjust and impossible. But if other people do not accept those terms they will become enemies of Germany and subject to discipline. It is an economic system that only force can maintain, and because it is unsound it must fail. It does not offer a very alluring prospect to nations which look forward to a place in the new world. Britain and the Empire regard Dr. Funk’s “new economic order” in Europe as a mixture of bribery and blackmail. The United States and other American republics have long since passed similar judgment upon it. Even Mexico has discovered that Germany owes 4,000,000 dollars for oil purchased before the war under a scheme which Mexico entered with enthusiasm during the dispute over the Mexican oil concessions. Half of the outside world is therefore thoroughly opposed to the “new economic order” in Europe, while many European States are living in dread of what it will bring forth. Even if Germany could win the war the system could not possibly become permanent. It is nothing more than a system of armed robbery to sustain Germany’s strength while she wages her war of aggression.