INFLATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 127, 30 May 1940, Page 7

INFLATION.

SIGNS IN GERMANY. Currency Volume Increased And It Buys Less. 3/ PAID FOR CUCUMBER. British Official Wireless. (Received 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, May 20. Evidence accumulates that the problem of inflation in Germany is becoming the anxiety of the population generally, and every effort is being made to convert marks into real assets, such as furniture and works of art, likely to retain some permanent value.

Private barter is also increasing, while in the '"black markets," where goods are sold illicitly without ration coupons or fixed pVices, the equivalent of £1 sterling has been paid for a pound of coffee. 3/ for a cucumber, and £3 for a woman's blouse normally valued at 15/.

The total circulation of marks in May. 1940,. was 16,000.000.000, against 11,500,000,000 in May, 1939.

The value of the mark in Xew York lias fallen by 57 per cent since August, compared with a drop of 16 per cent in the value of the pound sterling.

BRITISH TANKS.

Production And Design To Be Urgently Considered. BOARD APPOINTED. (Received 11.30 a.m.) LONDON. May 29. Mr. Herbert Morrison. Minister of Supply, in the House of Commons, announced that the Government had decided to constitute an Advisory Tank Board, under the chairmanship of Sir Alexander Roger, to consider urgently the ■whole situation regarding the production and design of tanks, and to advise as to action required.

The board is to include expert technicians, nominees of the War Oflice and Mr. Andrew Thompson, a member of the Council of the Trades Union Congress.

Sir Alexander Roger, who is chairman of British Insulated Cables, Ltd., and a director of Midland Bank, Ltd., is 62 years old. He was Director-General of the Trench Warfare Supply Department, Ministry of Munitions, from 1915 to 1917. and was a member of the Council Mini«trv of Reconstruction, t'rnni 1017 to 1918.