“MISERY AND STAGNATION” IN GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25084, 16 January 1947, Page 7

“MISERY AND STAGNATION” IN GERMANY

(Special Correspondent N.Z.PA.)

(Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON. January 15. As a result of the continuing coal shortage, the crippling effects of the cold spell, and a deterioration of morale among the people, life in western Germany at present is at its lowest ebb since the end of the war, says the “Manchester Guardian’s” correspondent in Dusseldorf.

Conditions are so chaotic that it is unlikely that there will be any substantial revival of German industry before the spring. Although the Ruhr and the Rhineland are now thawing out. another severe cold spell is predicted during the last week of the month. At present German economic life is merely crawling feebly from one crisis to another, and while this continues reconstruction is impossible. The effects of the merging of the British and American zones has not yet made itself felt, and the majority of the German population appear to be sunk in apathy. The newspapers and the German leaders are full of complaints and recriminations against the occupying Power, and the general trend is still unmistakeably downhill. To apportion the extent to which the present misery and stagnation are due to British mistakes, to misfortune, to the inevitable consequences of the war, or to the Germans’ failure to get down to the task of reconstruction is not easy. One of the chief German complaints is that there has been no domestic coal issue since November, but the Ruhr miners themselves refused to work the additional shift a month necessary to obtain the extra fuel. On the other hand, it can be ’argued that the miners refused because of an industrial policy which continues to export coal from Germany even when industry is paralysed and much of the population completely without fuel.

In some towns, no doubt, some of the people with money and influence have a little coal. This they have obtained by bartering food or goods with miners. People without money or influence, however, have been without fuel for weeks, and are living in indescribable misery and wretchedness. Shortages break both the public spirit and public morality, and every man is for himself.

The German industrial machine has been steadily running down for. some time. Coal stocks are exhausted, works are closed down, and equipment haa been left unrepaired. The cold spell before Christmas froze the canals and stopped all movement of fuel by water. Nevertheless, in spite of the conditions, the movement of food supplies has been generally maintained, but there are acute shortages of potatoes and milk, and local shortages of bread. * A slight revival is now apparent as a result of the thaw. Some coalfields are working again and the railways are getting back to normal, but there is little prospect of obtaining sufficient fuel to keep industry moving at more than 50 per cent of its November rate of activity. This in its turn was less than 25 per cent, of normal capacity.