A GLIMPSE OF EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 5

A GLIMPSE OF EUROPE.

RECENT VISITOR'S 4 ; IMPRESSIONS. STRAIGHTENING OUT EXCHANGES. '._ ENCOURAGING OBSERVATIONS. I A peculiarity of the movement of German foreign exchange, disclosing the latest freak of the German mark, was remarked upon by Mr: E. J. Hyams, of Wellington, in the course of an interview to-day. Mr. Hyams, who has been a frequent visitor to Europe since 1907 and has.just completed his fifth tour of the Continent, dropped some rather interesting gems of assertion regarding Continental affairs generally, and gave the impression.that conditions were better than New Zealan'ders ordinarily suppose. On his recent trip he spent four and a half months early this year in Europe, and travelled through Germany, Czecho-Slovakia, Austria, Italy and France. His travels have incidentally not improved his opinion of the New Zealand railways; for he speaks of everything being luxurious in Europe, not even excepting those countries whose prices soared as high as the astronomical zenith; "One can leave London at 10 in the morning and be at 'Prague on a through train from Flushing at 3 in the afternoon of .the 1 ollowing day. Then from Prague you take a very luxurious train to "Sienna and 'so across Southern Europe to Nice and Monte Carlo. The trains are very luxurious, equal to prewar days." Stabilising the Currenciea, Having given the impression that conditions of life on. . the Continent of Europe were delightfully • comfortable, Mr. Hyams proceeded leisurely to detail a few of his observations by the way. What be bad. to say about the foreign • exchanges was quite encouraging. "Most of the countries of Central Europe .have managed to put their currencies on a more or less stable basis," he remarked, "such as Prague, in Czechoslovakia, where the exchange is normally 150 kroner to the £. In Vienna the exchange hardly varies from 300,000 kroner to the £, and Italy stands at about 100 lire. So there are only slight variations in the rate on London. "As far as Germany is concerned, there are three distinct types of notes including the ordinary mark, which is practically valueless. The gold mark, which is really a gold certificate and is based on the American dollar, has now assumed the chief importanceAssuming that a man goes to Germany with a Bank of England note, lie will ouly receive about 18 shillings to tho £ when he converts it into gold marks, for the reason that the £ sterling is depreciated in terms of dollars. 3 ' What the Czechs Have Done. Czecho-Slovakia; Mr. Hyams spoke of as one of the most interesting republics in the world to-day. It was formerly the state of Bohemia, in the Austrian, empire, witli its capital at Prague. '"'Before the armistice," he said "ths Cbechs formed their own government, with President Thomas G. Masaryk, who is the only president in the world who has been elected for life, at the head of affairs. "Immediately the people formed their own republic they ealied in all the Austrian money in the country, and issued an official currency of their own bearing the new government's stamp. Any Austrian money in tie country not being legal tender was valueless. Having done that the Czechs started issuing their own paper money against gold. This currency is now 150 kronen to the £, a striking instance of the possibilities of courageous currency regulation when compared with the conditions over the border, where Austria is grappling with a currency problem in which. 300,000 kronen exchange for the f. __ Everything Dear in Austria. — "• As might have been expected front what lie was told by the Czech people about the depths of depreciation to which. [the Austrian currency had fallen, Mr. i" Hyams found on going to Vienna that conditions were as bad as lie had been led to imagine. "Austria is recovering slowly from the I effects of the war," he said, "but everyI thing is very dear, even allowing for j the depreciation; and, as a matter of 1 fact, it is equally as expensive, if not more so, to live in Vienna than in London. All commodities are subject to a tax. Your hotel account, if it comes to. say f 1 for your bedroom, which is the regular price in the leading hotels, ' is increased to 30/ by a Government tax. Music taxes and other taxes are 'on the same scale; and everything that 'j is consumed in the country is subject 'to a tax in some form or another. I "Rates of interest, I was informed in Vienna, run as high as 30 per cent; but prices are still rising, and that tends ito off-set the heavy interest charges." Replying to a question, he said that jin the smaller towns in both Germany ' jand Austria there was a great deal of I distress and unemployment, all industries I being but in the larger centres conditions appeared very much better. I "One hears a lot about poverty in Germany, and a good deal of this is I true," explained Mr. Hyams, "but at j the same time the German people are ! spending money lavishly, buying expensive luxuries, both in England and France. It seems that, whilst there is a great deal of poverty, there appears also to be much wealth. At Nice and Monte Carlo, where the principal spenders this season were Austrians and Germans, this wealth was particularly in evidence." No New Zealand Propaganda. In conclusion, Mr. Hyams said that . everywhere, during his travels, he ' % noticed, and many others would agree C j with him, that there was a regrettable | absence of New Zealand propaganda. »| "New Zealand should attack the ques1 1 tion of opening up trade with other 11 countries. There is a splendid opportunity," he urged. "I know it is going to cost a very large sum; but we should have our trade representatives in all the principal cities of trading countries, acting as trade commissioners as weli as featuring the beauties of New Zealand, with the object of attracting tourists and immigrants of the right type." German competition in the New Zead land market, he was not afraid of. "As c far as German trade is concerned I do i- not think there will be any great imports g of German-made articles into this c country," was his confident assertion, c The manufacturing cost of these goods if is exceptionally high, and outside of it certain goods that cannot be manu>e factured in England, you will find that y the imports of German-made goods will be very limited."