LUXURIOUS HAMBURG.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3138, 9 October 1922, Page 7

LUXURIOUS HAMBURG.

AN ORGY OF SPENDING. Writing from Hamburg, Mr Otis Swift, correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, gives the following vivid account of life in that famous German city:— "What I want to know," says the German bushiest man, "is; what is the world going to do about it? You are forcing Germany into the abyss. Unjust reparations, cruel indemnities', inconsiderate treatment, is driving Germany to despair. We arc being forced over the brink, facing possible revolution, communism, anarchy, the plight of Soviet Russia."

"What I want to know," broke in the English business man, "is how do you get that way?" The scene was a mammoth glitteniiig cafe on the shores of the Binnenalster Lake, the wide, beautiful stretch of blue water lying in the centre of the city that makes Hamburg a; Northern Venice. The cafe was crowded. Hundreds of prosperous, fat, jovial, con-tented-looking German business men at the tables. With them were their wives, arrayed in summer furs, sparkling jewels, svelte Berlin ii\ gowns cut after the latest Paris mode. Waiters dashed to and -fro, bringing huge golden schooners of beer, trays laden with delicate pastries, baskets' of peaches, cherries, choice fruits. A band blared out the latest Berlin jazz. Nowhere in Europe, except perhaps on the Riviera, had the Englishman seen such carefree extravagance, reckless spending lavish magnificence. Beyond' the plateglass windows, pa>>t the wide terrace where more crowds lounged in wicker deck-chairs in the shade of fluttering palm trees that stood in squat little green tubs, the open expanse of the lake was dotted with pleasure craft of all descriptions. Knockabout rigged sail-boats, that can be hired for forty marks an hour, tacked to and' fro. Youths' in brilliant checked blazers paddled cedar punts across the waiter, keeping rhythm to the music of portable gramophones in the bows. Pretty blonde fraoleins lay on heaped cushions on the bottom boards laughing and chatting with their sun-burned cavaliers.

White winged sailing canoes, wonderful creations of cedar and mahoganv that would cost a. fortune at home, slipped smoothly through the water. Excursion boats, loaded to the guards, churned down the bay carrying plea-sure-seekers to outer resorts. On Jnngferstiog. before the door of the cafe, high-powered motor cars, with fantastic futurist bodies and solid wheels, dashed past. Uniformed chauffeurs piloted the cars, and every car was crowded with fat, prosperous, well dressed folk of the Free City of Hamburg. The side walk crowds were better dressed than the people of London or Paris; the show windows were piled with luxury goods of all sorts, sport clothes, sport goods, .leather bags. and suit cases, frocks and gowns of wonderful line.

To Englishmen here it seems an impossible fantasy, an unreal dream. Hut such is Hamburg to-day. The picture is equally true of Berlin. It is true on a lesser scale ol other cities throughout Germany. Outside the cities the country people seem equally prosperous. The fields are yellow with heavy wheat, the hay is thick in the meadows, every inch of ground is cultivated and hearing a rich harvest. In the industrial districts every factory chimney belches its clouds of smoke against the sky; by night the Rhine Valley towns of Hamm, Essen, and Dortmund are lit with the red glow of the furnaces, and ablaze with thousands of lighted factory windows where double shifts carry on production. Thus, when the German speaks of economic breakdown, of national bankruptcy, of impending collapse, the English visitor ponders: "How do they get that way?" In the face of the exchange collapse it is useless for the German to attempt to save money. If he saves his earnings, he will find his hoarded money merely worthless scrap-paper in a few months. There is only one thing he can do with his salary cheque. By buying to the limit of his pay, by spending every pfennig as soon as it is made, he can obtain real tangible property—-motor-cars, clothes, furs, suit cases, malacca canes, rare wines, jewels, things that will not depreciate in value. Whatever the future price of the mark, be will have actual assets in bis possession, material things which will have a market value. Kealisating this, the German is spending to the last limit. The young married man, drawing a good salary in paper marks, who a few years ago would have made cautious investments, now buys an expensive automobile, heaps furs and gowns for lii.s wife, spends artistic but valueless hundred-mark notes as fast as possible lest he'find they have hut half their buying power by to-morrow's sunrise. *

This spending orgy has broken down the German morale, lias increased the scale of living of hundreds of thousands of people to fantastic proportions. Germany has lost all money perspective, and lives only for the moment. Mad buying has speeded up production to an abnormal degree; goods arc being bought faster than they aro being produced. Money has become valueless but at the same time Germany's floating capital is being consumed, her national margin of living is being exhausted. Thus tho time is coming, and coming soon, when this real capital will lie exhausted, when all the goods are gone, when the margin is wiped out. lieyond this margin lies the chaos that the wiser, older leaders fear.