ECONOMIC POLICY OF GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22593, 24 December 1938, Page 17

ECONOMIC POLICY OF GERMANY

♦ VIRTUAL DICTATORSHIP BY HERR FUNK EFFORT TO CHECK DRIFT OF INDUSTRY BERLIN, December 22. A virtual economic dictatorship has been entrusted to the German Minister for Economy (Herr Funk) in an endeavour to check the rapid drift to the paralysis of industry resulting from the acute labour shortage and lack of raw materials. His duties are now those of a Minister for Labour, Supply, and Economics. Under the new arrangements by which trade production been nationalised and unified, all resources will be pooled, but Herr Funk is empowered to divert any proportion from th • pool in favour of a single producer or industry needing support. He will also control the distribution of labour and raw materials, though not the State-owned German undertakings, which are bound hand and foot with the Government’s policy. Herr Funk is initially concerned with the practical administration of the Four-year Plan, while FieldMarshal Goring is evolving the ’ basic principles for economic readjustment. BRITISH-GERMAN TRADE FASTS FOR DISCUSSIONS FOUND LONDON, December 22. After informal discussions between the Federation of British Industries and the Reich Grouppe Industrie, it was announced that a common basis had been found on which official trade discussions between England and Germany can be inaugurated early in the New Year, not only on a TtvaVoal vnereaae vtv. trade, but also competition in the world markets.