ONE HAPPY LAND IN EUROPE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 273, 17 November 1936, Page 6

ONE HAPPY LAND IN EUROPE.

In Luxemburg Taxes Are Lou), There is no Unemployment—And the Army is Three Hundred Strong.

(By MARC T. GREENE.)

IN THE VERY HEART of Europe, a rock of economic and political security amid the shifting sands of Continental distress and uncertainty, stands the independent Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. Its 300,000 people contentedly inhabit an area of scarce a thousand square miles, unvexed by national deficits, unemployment, illiteracy, a low standard of living or controversies with their neighbours. There has never been an unbalanced Budget. Everyone has his job and at a good living wage, and taxes are very low in comparison with the rest of Europe. Public purchasing power is high and the industrious, thnfty and intelligent Luxemburgers are accustomed to and invariably enjoy a far higher degree of comfort and material welfare than any of the countries about them. Around Luxemburg lie Germany, France and Belgium, and an hour's train journey from the capital city, which bears the same name as the Grand Duchy itself, brings you across the frontier of any one of them. Paris is accessible in six hours; Brussels in three, and yet the snug little Grand Duchy might be on another planet, so marked is the contrast between tlie tranquillity, the content and the sense of security that reign here and the disturbed conditions round about. Yon come into Luxemburg with something of the feeling, of the satisfaction, of the traveller who has made a long and arduous journey through a troubled and uncertain land, but now finds himself in peace, safety and comparative plenty. Singularly little is known of Luxemburg in the outside world, and yet it is almost in the economic and population centre of the Continent. But 111 its prosperity and content it declares to all the world the possibility of a national existence free from political uncertainty and economic stress. With the storms of Europe gathering all about it, with tumult on every side, Luxemburg remains calm and serene, unaffected by repercussions of Continental political conflicts, untouched by European social and economic ailments. "Technical" Resistance in 1914. The Duchy is independent in fact as well as in name. It has a fifty-year economic agreement with Belgium, and Customs duties are the same for both countries. Statistics of imports and exports of Luxemburg are included in figures for Belgium. The latter's currency circulates freely in the Duchy, but at a discount of 25 per cent, because when Belgium devalued her currency 35 per cent a few years ago Luxemburg yielded only ten. But the little country's coinage is its own, being circulated by the Grand Ducal Government through one bank of issue, and all contracts and official documents are made in it. Politically, of course, Luxemburg independence is guaranteed by the Powers, through a treaty made in London, in 1867. This has been violated only once, when the Germans entered and occupied the Grand Duchy in 1914. The Luxemburg "army," which numbers but 300, and is really only a guard of honour to Her Highness the Grand Duchess Charlotte, who, with her consort. Prince Felix of BourbonParma, rules the little country, marched forth, met tlie invaders, and made a "technical," though bloodless, resistance. Nothing more happened, except, of course, a formal protest to the guaranteeing Powers. But the Germans did the Grand Duchy 110 harm whatever. They

paid well for everything v.sed and for all the property occupied, and subjected the Luxemburgers to no indignities of any kind. Luxemburg's economic independence rests chiefly upon its large metal industries. Tlie>- ° produce annually more than 7,000,000 tons Oi iron ore, pig iron and steel, and even sell to the United States 200,000 dollars' worth each year. Other industries are leather tanning and agriculture, including dairying and wine producing. In the great steel mills the demand for labour is so steady that it far exceeds ttfe capacity of the little country itself, and so you find in the mills more than 6000 Italians, all of whom have gladly fled their own impoverished and fear-ruled laiul, and here independence, security and three times the wage tliey would receive in Italy. Country Like a Park. Luxemburg is one of the most delightful countries on the Continent for tourists, and also one of the least expensive. It is not so well advertised as the others, nor has it ever attempted to make what in is called "tourism" one of its chief industries. But it .is full of interest and charm. The capital and largest city has played an important part in European history for many centuries, and it has, too, a unique bcaut\. Its founders placed it in a position of singular security, upon an elevation almost surrounded by streams flowing through deep gorges and overlooking a fair, undulating, forested and richly cultivated countryside. There are many resemblances to England, and to the less niountainoug parts of Switzerland. Indeed, one corner of the park-like country is known as "Little Switzerland," a kind of epitome of that much-advertised land. All around the capital itself, as a drive of an hour or two by motor over some of the finest highways in Europe discloses to you, is a luxury of scencry that arouses the admiration and wonder of the_ tourist. You pass through medieval towns with castle ruins perched upon almost inaccessible rocks. You come upon such ancient places as Eittlbruck, which takes it name from Attila, who camped thereabouts shortly before the battle of Chalone-sur-Marne. You drive through splendid avenues of tali pines to reach medicinal spring resorts, spas such as Mondorf-les-bains, which is so close to the French frontier that the boundary actually runs through the pump room gardens.

In the Ardennes district of Luxemburg, which adjoins that of Belgium, is a rich and lovely succession of mountain and valley, forest and park, plain and river and gorge, a true condensation of half the scenery of the Continent. Here and there throughout this land you find the remains of medieval strongholds and of massive fortifications of the feudal days, mighty bastions surrounded by ivy-twined watchtowers built into the rocks themselves and continuing in perpendicular cliff walls to tremendous heights. The scenic spectacle is ever changing, and the tourist finds well-equipped places for his entertainment as numerous as in Switzerland.

The capital itself was founded in 963 by Count Sigefroi, who was of the Carlovingian line. From 1443, when it was conquered by Philip of Burgundy, to 1815, when the Congress of Vienna made Luxemburg a Grand Duchy, it was possessed successively by Burgundy, Spain, Austria and France. Dutch kings were the Grand Dukes until IS9O, when the sovereignty came to the House of Nassau, to which the, present Grand Duchess belongs.