GERMAN TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 31, 7 February 1927, Page 3

GERMAN TRADE

INDUSTRIAL COLOSSUS

BUSINESS MAN'S PREDICTION

"In 10 years' time Germany will be industrially supreme. To-day she is quickly outstripping her English and Continental rivals, and by sheer hard work and tenacity, her people are forging ahead to,a position which will soon place them in command of many of the world's markets." Thus spoke Mr. John Brown, the Sydney coal magnate, who has recently returned from a business trip to England, the Continent, and America, states the "Sydney Morning Herald." .'

The German people, he said, had forgotten the war, and were now bent upon building up their country's industries, and placing Germany once'more in a position of commercial supremacy. That was the goal which nearly every man and woman throughout the length and breadth.of the country was fightingfor. They realised that their own prosperity and that of Germany could be won only by years of hard, consistent work.

When in Germany, Mr. Brown continued, he had been treated with-the utmost courtesy. At Essen he had inspected one of the largest, if not the largest, machinery factory, in. the worH, employing more than 110,000 men. This huge plant, which was working at full pressure, was exporting machinery to all parts of the world at prices which foreign competitors could not even approach. Although the workmen received only from 8s to 10s for a ten-hour dry,, the purchasing power of the money was double what it would be in Australia, because everyone worked hard, and, in consequence prices were low.

While English steelworks were working at half blast, and others were closeddown altogether, said Mr. Brown, Germany was busy exporting finished steel to all parts of the world, and there was an ever-increasing demand. The Germans could afford to sell their finished steel, and show a fair margin of profit at £G to £6 10s a ton, while at English steelworks the same articles could not even be produced at less than £7 to £7 10s a ton. "When travelling from Southampton to New York, he had met five wealthy American business men, who, after a visit to the Continent and a study of industrial conditions, had 1 desided to open up an enormous plant in Germany for the manufacture of machinery. The reason for their action was that in Germany workmen were content toi be paid from 8s to 10s a day, while in America the average wage was £2 a day. There was a lot of talk, Mr. Brown said, about people being prejudiced against goods manufactured in Germany, but his experience had been that buyers did not look much beyond quality and price. Another factor which would play an important part in Germany's industrial development was the decision of a Ger-man-American syndicate to construct, at a cost of £20,000,000, a gigantic plant for the extraction of oil from coal. This plant, upon which- a start had already been made, would have an output of 1,250,000 tons of oil a year, and would be sold at a price Which, it was claimed, would be 50 per cent, lower than that of the present oil companies. The importance of this factory, Mr. Brown said, might be gauged when it was realised that in a fewyears' time nearly the whole of the shipping of the world would be oil driven. Harland and Wolff had recently contracted for the building'of nine 9000-ton steamers, each of which would be an oil-driven vessel. He had beejn told that in the future this firm would only accept contracts for oil-driven, steamers .

Mr. Brown said that everywhere in: America he had seen evidence of wonderful prosperity. In his opinion, however, America was now at the zenith of her power. Within the' next fewyears, he considered that Germany, an. industrial colossus, would be astride tha world. .-■-.■-