LIFE IN GERMANY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 78, 12 January 1940, Page 8

LIFE IN GERMANY

NEUTRAL TRAVELLER’S REPORT. HAMPERED BY RESTRICTIONS. Berlin is described as “a city of restrictions and no light” by a traveller from a. neutral country who traversed Germany recently, spending three nights and two days in the capital, says a Paris message to the “New York Times.” One of those days was a general holiday, decreed to celebrate the downfall of Poland. The traveller, who, according to the control stamps on his passport, entered Germany on October 3 at Sassnitz on the Baltic and left on October 6 at Benthcim on the Netherlands frontier, was not able to celebrate, however, for lack of broad arid meat cards, which are required even in restaurants. As yet there are no beer cards, however, and he found the quality of German beer still excellent. “I went to Sassnitz on the German rail ferry Deutschland from the port of Trelleborg on Sweden’s south coast,” the traveller related. “This service still operates, hut only once daily instead of twice, as before the war. The crossing, regularly four hours, required six; hut that was due to bad weather. Eventually we arrived five hours late, at Berlin, or around midnight, to find the city 100 per cent, blacked out so that one literally could not see an object half a yard away. “There is still some travel between Sweden and Germany, for aboard the ferry there were about 50 passengers, mostly young Scandinavians apprenticed to trade and technical schools on the Continent, There were also some that looked to be German travelling salesmen hound for home. Swedish) Money Wanted. “A remarkable thing aboard the ferry was that, although it- was German, they did not accept German money for any purchases or bills. Prices" 1 were marked in Swedish kronor. This does not speak much for the Reich’s confidence in its own money; or perhaps they need foreign currency so badly that even the few odd cents that they collect on selling beer and cigarettes aboard this ferry count for something to improve the situation. “I could just barely use German money on that boat to buy German postage stamps. The girl behind the tobacco and stamp counter gave me a look as much as to say I was putting something over on her by paying for Reich stamps in Reich currency. “The passport and Customs examination at Sassnitz passed off painlessly except that the passport officer, a man in party uniform, exclaimed, ‘Donnerwetter!’ when he saw my French visa, showing that I was on my way to France. Since my German transit visa was in order and since evidently he had had no instructions to cover this exceptional case, he let me pass. He looked as relieved as I felt, so perhaps he was glad to have an excuse to get rid of me. “Berlin was flagged. In fact, I saw a great many Nazi flags all over Germany. But the spirit of the population did not strike me as particularly high. Yet there is no curfew in Berlin, as there is in Paris. Restaurants keep open all night, if they want to, and there is music everywhere. Still, there are not many persons in the restaurants, evidently because few except foreigners have money to spend, and there are few foreigners left in Germany.

Restrictions of All Kinds. “What particularly annoyed me in Berlin and must be as annoying to the population is the constant whir of aeroplanes overhead. This goes on day and night. , “Then there are the restrictions of all kinds except, curiously enough, on gasoline. (Rigid restrictions have sinde been enforced.—Ed). I had no difficulty in getting taxis to. and from the railroad stations, and a business acquaintance of mine living ‘in one of the suburbs proudly showed me a permit to buy a hundred gallons of gasoline that he had just obtained. He figured this would be sufficient to run his car 75 miles a day for a month. ‘“Otherwise there were restrictions and cards for everything, even for clothing. One store on Friedrichstrasse had a window display of women’s blouses on which was a sign announcing these could be bought without cards.

“People did not mind talking politics, and from conversations I had with a great number of persons, both soldiers and civilians, I got the impression they look on Chamberlain as a, bogy man. They blame everything on him—meaning the war in the West. Of France they spoke dispassionately or not at all.

“Tho train to the Netherlands frontier was filled with soldiers returning on leave after having participated in the Polish campaign. They lived in Western Germany and were on their way to spend a furlough before being called to fight again. This, they all thought, was going to he against Britain. “There were also some soldiers aboard bound for the French frontier for duty. “The soldiers who had been in Poland looked O.K. physically and appeared to have high morale, but their uniforms were dirty and in some cases ragged. “At the German-Netherland fi ontier at Benthiem, the Customs inspector was most thorough. Every lining in my clothing and every paper and notebook I had were examined. It took me three hours before I got the O.K. to get out. In Sassnitz it had taken only a quarter of an hour.”