GERMANY'S TRADE.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16212, 15 May 1918, Page 6

GERMANY'S TRADE.

PREPARATIONS FOR AFTER lag WAR. APPOINTMENT OF A COMMERCIAL CABINET.

(spkci.vijl.y written' vor "the raess.»»>

(By Mrs Jn.us Grand*.)

BERNE, March 11, ••While your people in England ate busy packing the Government wit), newspaper proprietors. Germany « much busier with her trade prepare, tions for after the war. Sho has appointed a commercial Cabinet of ten members, and a Commercial Parliament of members, besides twenty-thiw special technical committees, to deal with finance, and with tho different categories oi products and trndo after the war."

This statement was made to me by one of the most influential financier fo Switzerland, a man with extensivebusness connexions with the British Em. pire, and v.hose friendliness to Great Britain cannot be called in question. "Your peonb in England," h© tinued, "are either ill-informed as to ' what, is going on in Germany, or &j© even now not thoroughly wakened up by the war. Of course, Germany does not blurt out everything 6ho is doing, and hardly any information about tho detailed decisions of the 'German Im- ' perial Trade Commissioner for the Transition Period' lias become pnblic. Compare with this,"' he said, "the,inl discreet questions asked in the British Parliament, and the often blazing indiscretions of your Press."

I may say that Germany has been busy over her "Imperial Trade Commissioner's Oflice for. the Transition Period'' for considerably more than » year past now. At the head of t]» ■whole office, which is now included in the new Gorman "Imperial Office of Public Economy." is the well-known Hamburg- Senator, Sthamer, and the Commercial Cabinet is composed of tlrt following ten members, all of whom; I may sny, are honorary:—

Hon- Andreac, a Berlin banker ; Herr Arnhold, of Berlin; general manager of tho Phcenix Company; Dr. Beucl&tiberg, of Dortmund, a member ol .tie Board of Works: I>r. Duisberg, 6f Leverkusen; Horr Helms, of firemen, manager of the German Hansa Stehtti-, shipping Co., Dr. Hoesch, of Nenkirchen; Dr. Lohmanc, of Bremen; Herr Marwitz, of Dresden (a Privy Commercial Councillor); Dr. Anton Hitter von Rippel, of 2S'iirnberg, a member of the Reichsrat; and Dr. August "Weber, of Berlin, formerly National Liberal Deputy.

The -staff employed number, I ata , assured, aboiit for whom one of i' the largest buildings in Berlin Las beta engaged. The Commercial Cabinet J seems almost constantly .in session, and is empowered to call upon afyiMetchant, manufacturer, commercial man, engineer, financial or other expert likely to have interesting information to give, to read a paper or deliver an ad- ' dress before it, after w,hieh. lie must, 1 , answer all the numerous which will probably bo put to him.

The 3dS members of the Commercial Parliament to deal with the Transition Period are not either mainiy Jawy®)fs ' or paid politicians, but principally , financiers, manufacturers, or shrewd 1 business men.

The departments into which the work of the German Imperial Commissioner'sOffice for tJie Transit ion Period is divided are as follows: — 1 and trade, and means- * of communications. .'J. 11011, manganese, chrome, tungsten, and moiybdenum ores, slagb, woou, paper, and stones. 4. ijuau, antimony, zinc, tin, cobalt, copper, ana topper ores, tfiiu • clay, grapmte, and maeiiinery. > o. Textiles and worn clothing, (j. Cereals, louder, meat, cuule. ,

7. Lolon;ai produce, viscera, guin, in* diarubber, reeds (l'or ctuur liair, bristles, tobacco, oiib, and olett-i!.: giiious substances, fats, asbestos, hides,.' KKins, and leatlier. Department No. 7 also includos th»\ study of oversea import trade. ' a. Overland imports, the problem.of limitation of imports, and the question of coals and phosphates. 9. General questions. , • Besides the Cabinet Council,., this Parliament and tlicso nine uilferdnV departments, the German Imperial Commissioner's Office for the Transition Period includes two further departments: Department Ay to deal tHta questions ot staff management and est penditurc, and Department B for Statistical questions. • ' f

Again, to assist the Cabinot; there are twenty-three committees of exjibrts, the smallest of which has seven mombers, and the largest (for hides and skins, leather and tanning materials) 30 members. That which deals With linancc (10 members) includes all * the r ablest Berlin bankers. Bilk, woolj loot--ton, and hemp each have an expert committee to themselves.

Sinco this German Commercial Cab'* , net and Transition Period Office luiv® been in existence, many of their elabor-. ate calculations have been upset, offing to the advent of new belligerents, in particular the United 'States, ana now Argentina, whero Germany has extensive interests. On the other hand, the confusion in - Russia is, of course, greatly encouraging them. A good many of Germany's transition period preparations, .of course, consist in getting Austrian, Hungarian, . Bulgarian, and Turkish trad© into her iron grip. In neutral countries she has her agents constantly reporting upon the quantities of raw materials likely w be available immediately the war » over, and doing their utmost to buy them up, and export thera, if if not storo them in convenient P»«™: They aro also trying to buy up a advertising agencies in neutral countries, so as to be able to control tfl newspapers, and of course also c - deavouring to buy up the faetoncs. with a view to being ablo not only to purchase raw materials in Alhcd tries, but also to export German roots as Swiss, Dutch, etc., whereas all uw time thev will really bo Gorman. ... To show the nmount of money wnicn the Germans are prepared to sppnu upon their all-embracing • for the Transition Period and afterUW war generally, T can £ivo an instance known to me personalty.. A j lirrn in a well-known Swiss commercial , town was offered a certain lu m .P. r • the Germans for the goodwill of i« business, with which, honever, fusod to part, bix months the Ciermans again approachcd firm, offering it twice as much for tn goodwill of its business. I shall end a? I bcqan. byquotmg the views of a Swiss, this t.mo a ntf . chant, not a .banker I people," he said, "unless they do som£ thin" and a irreat deal, at once, i counteract all this plotting and schcmmg, will be■ prepared for the commercial the war as they were m 1914 for war on tJio •* : r-i„M