East Germany Asks Bonn For Credit

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29843, 8 June 1962, Page 11

East Germany Asks Bonn For Credit

(Special Correspondent N Z.P.A.) LONDON, June 7. The news that East Germany is seeking a massive trade credit from Bonn has astounded the West German public, already angered by the Communist attempt to murder a 15-year-old boy escaping from East Berlin, the “Daily Telegraph’s” Bonn correspondent reported.

Discussions, he said, have been proceeding secretly for some months and when British and American l newspapers broke the official silence it caused the Bonn

Government considerable embarrassment.

The East German Government is interested in trade credits totalling at least £245 million, in addition to the present exchange of goods on an essentially barter basis. About £2OO million of this sum will be accounted for by deliveries of 30 million tons of hard coal over ten ye irs. The remaining £45 million would cover deliveries of machine tools and electrical technical equipment over an unspecified period. The big snag, the correspondent said, was the problem of payment. “East Germany, ag the British business man knows, talks big about trade but has practically no currency. Usually she wants to barter with products which have little attraction for exporters. “The East German representatives indicated that they would like to repay much of the credit with Russian oil. but the Bonn Government has no desire to become dependent on cheap Russian oil supplies.

“The commercial background is hardly encouraging. but the greatest significance of the Communist request lies in its implications for Berlin and the German questions. Herr Ulbricht, it may be assumed, would not approach the Bonn Government for aid unless he really needed it and had Moscow's approval.”

Tour Postponed (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, June 7. The Leader of the Opposition in the Australian Senate McKenna) has postponed an overseas tour indefinitely because of the seri. ouj illness of his son. Senator McKenna was due to leave Australia today to join the Deputy Leader of the Opposition (Mr E. G. Whitlam), now in Athens, for exploratory consultations with Labour leaders in Britain, Europe and the United States, on the effects of Britain’s probable entry into the European Common Market. Store Rushed (N.Z P A .-Reuter—Copyright) WARSAW, June 7. One woman broke a leg and a door was torn off its binges as 7000 shoppers besieged Warsaw's first supermarket yesterday. Elsewhere in the city, thousands of housewives, fearing price increases as a result of largescale flooding, queued from early morning to buy food supplies.