DRIVE FOR MARKETS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 80, 5 April 1939, Page 20

DRIVE FOR MARKETS.

GERMANY'S POSITION.

ATMOSPHERE OF APPREHENSION.

BERLIN. The recent violent protest of America public opinion against the possibility o "secret political and diplomatic moves , by President Roosevelt provid«*d a mos welcome diversion in Germany. It wa used by her skilful propaganda expert to create the impression that America) public opinion is in sympathy with tin Nazi cause, while America's Presiden is branded as an "ally of red Moscow.' The statement that German export would be increased tit all costs has beei greeted with scepticism by the business man. Rumours assert that the forniei Reichsbank president, Dr. Schacht, wil be named "National Commissioner foi Exports." The drop in exports in 1938 despite the conquest of Austria and Sudetenland, is very discouraging Exports fell by £14,000,000 as comparer with 1937, despite Governmental finan cial support to enable German industry to underbid her competitors. National Spain provides a ray of hop? for German business. Hitler has said that _ Germany participated in the Spanish war only for "unselfish motives." The German Economist' ("Deutsche Volkswirt"), in a recent issue, revealed that in 1937 Germany received 310,540 tons of iron ore from Franco Spain; but in the eleven months of 1938 she received 1,000,000. In other words, 5 per cent of Germany's total import of iron.«ame from Spain. Wines From Spain. One-fifth of the wines Germany imported in 1938 came from Spain, and close to one-third of the olive oil allowed to enter Germany was Spanish. Copper ore, zinc and sudphuric pyrites figure prominently o.i the list of materials imported from Spain to Germany, presumably on a barter basis. Now that General Franco has won complete viewy. Germany hopes she will be able to obtain more' from - him. In the conversations between the representatives of the Evian Committee and the German authorities it was indicated on the German side that if the Jews were settled in lands producing crops the Germans could use—soy beans, bananas and coffee—they would under certain conditions be willing to buy them. Both the Germans and the foreign delegates, headed by Mr. Rublee, refused to comment on the result of their conversations, declaring that the matter first had to be submitted to the members of the Evian Committee in London on February 13. Although official circles emphatically deny a rapprochement between Germany and the Soviet Union, trade nego-

tiations between the two countries were resumed on a less sensational basis than asserted in a number of newspapers. The special perodical devoted to German Eastern exports, "Ost Wirtschaft," reveals that German purchases from Russia in 1938 were much bigger than German exports to Russia in that period, partly, the German expert admits, | because German industry was not able to deliver the equipment Russia was willing to buy. These and similar economic considerations increase the atmosphere of apprehension throughout the whole of Germany.