SHORT OF BUTTER

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 157, 31 March 1937, Page 3

SHORT OF BUTTER

Problems of Germany

REMEDY IN OWN HANDS From certain circles in the city of London and elsewhere propaganda is starting again for a loan to Germany, says Geoffrey Crowther, in the ‘‘Daily Mail.” The argument is quite simple. Germany, it is said, is in desperate economic straits: she is getting short of food, and unless we help her her desperation may lead to some act of violence. Dr. Schacht, the economic dictator of Germany, has put the argument in its crudest form. Either Germany gets a large loan, he says, or there will be an ex-plosion. Is Germany really in diHk-tilties? The answer to that question is “Yes.” There is distinct shortage both of raw materials and of some sorts of foodstuffs. The greatest shortage is in fats, of which butter is the most important.

The German people are not by any means starving; but some of them are on short commons. But why tire the Germans short of butter? The answer to this is ti little complicated. The first thing that any economist making an investigation of Germany's economic position would notice would be the colossal expenditure on armaments. The exact amount is not published, hut there are means of estimating it. The last estimate is that Germany is this year spending ou armaments something like 12.500 million marks (between £625.000.000 and £1.000,000,006, according to which of the many values of the mark vou take). Devoted to Armaments. This means that something like onesixth of the entire resources of the nation are being devoted to rearming. And that, in tutu, means that all the food and clothes and houses and other useful things for the nation have to be provided out of the remaining fivesixths. Why cannot we have butter? asks the German housewife. Because we cannot buy from abroad, answers the Nazi. And why cannot ve buy from abroad? asks the housewife. Because Germany is a poor country which cannot buy more than she succeeds in selling. and the hard, cruel world refuses to allow Germany to sell.

This is a convincing harl-lnek story to those wiio know nothing about the facts. What are the facts? Last year Germany exported (i.e., sold to foreign countrie.s) 20 per cent, more goods than in 1932, the year before Hitler took office. That figure refers to the actual weight or volume of German trade, not to its value, which might be affected by changes in price. British exports increased between 1932 and 1930 by 21 per cent. And the trade of the world as a whole increased, in volume, by 151- per cent. The truth is that Germany, far from having undue difficulty in selling her goods abroad, has been doing very much better than the average. Debt Payments Reduced, Moreover, in 1932 Germany was still paying her debts, or. at least, some of them. To-day Germany's debt payments have been reduced to the minimum. Not only is she earning more by her exports, but she is spending a larger proportion of her earnings on imports from other countries. In figures, Germany's imports from foreign countries* last year were 55 per cent, larger by volume than in 1932. They were larger than in nnv post-war vear except 1929.

If there is any shortage of food and raw malerials lor her peaceful industries it is simply and solely because the rulers of Germany have such an insatiable appetite for munitions.

What finally, about the threatened explosion? There is nothing .whatever in the economic position of Germany that would eomind an explosion. The only compulsion lies in German polities. It the German people get so restive with the shortage of food and other goods that the popularity of the Nazis is undermined, they may stage an explosion to distract puldic attention from their troubles.

But if will be a m, 'tn-made, stagemanaged explosion. The remedy for Germany's troubles lies entirely in her own hands.