CLEARING PACT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 218, 15 September 1939, Page 8

CLEARING PACT.

TRADING CONDITIONS.

Maintenance By Germany And Holland. NAZI ECONOMIC POSITION. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, September 14. A cable from The Hague says the Germans and Dutch have agreed to maintain a clearing agreement, Germany promising to wipe out arrears as soon as possible.

An earlier British Official Wireless message stated that to neutral European States, especially those in the 6outh-east, Germany is' lioldyig out bright trade prospects, based on the assumption that the conquest of Poland will soon be achieved. It is claimed that by then German coal production will increase by one-quarter, steel by over 2,000,000 toils and eine by 100,000 tons.

These claims have given rise in the British Press to comparison between Germany's economic position in 1014 and to-day, even if such claims were correct. A correspondent of "The Times" points out that Germany in 1914 possessed not only those very parts ot Poland that slie lias now seized, but also tin? remainder of that country, together with its raw materials ami food-iuffs.

The correspondent also points out the vastly superior credit and financial position of Germany in IWI4. '"To-day," lie adds, "with credit exhausted, negligible gold reserves and an acute shortage of foreign exchange, it is clear that the Nazis Will not be able to buy as Imperial Germany could almost until the end of the last war."

A New York cable says a German firm lias ordered and paid for the phosphate seized on the Neptune Line steamer Warrior, of 342 tons.