AID FOR COAL TRADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 61, 14 March 1939, Page 9

AID FOR COAL TRADE

TRIPLE GERMAN PLAN

INJURY TO BRITAIN

Inquiries by the "Daily Telegraph and Morning Post" have revealed that Germany's methods to capture British coal markets overseas are considered by coal owners to demand strong retaliatory measures. ■ In the first seven months of this year British coal exports have fallen by 2,200,000 tons. It was stated in London that German coal exports aHe being facili» tated by three powerful systems. " The first is that of the Rhenish Westphalian Syndicate, which has organised a large fund by which coal for export is subsidised; the second, the special and substantial reductions operative for inland rail freights; the third, the frozen credits system by which Germany,, in effect, barters exports for her imports. The machinery of the Rhenish Westphalian Syndicate is, kept strictly confidential. British exporters have no knowledge of the manner in which the syndicate fixes export coal prices, but know that determination to get the contract recognises no bounds. The principle was aaid in London to be one of systematic under-cutting, an elastic arrangement adapted to suit individual quotations. There was no standard list of quotations for the various grades of German coal exported. The fund was maintained by a levy on coal produced in Germany, the brunt of the burden 6f which fell on the German consumer. Last year this levy was 3.50 marks a ton. Today, -the official rate of exchange of the mark is about 12 to the £, and the average total subsidy 6 marks a ton. COAL FOR OTHER GOODS. In the case of Poland, ifc. was explained, there was an agreement with Britain which related the total tonnage exported by Poland to that exported by Britain. No similar agreement existed with Germany. Regarding the second factor—the effect of reduced railway rates for coal for export—the reduction was eight marks a ton from the Ruhr to Hamburg. Finally, it was being found that the system of barter comprised in the freezing of credits enabled Germany to pay in coal, among other products, for hdr imports, and that course was being actively pursued. Official figures for German coal exports cbnveyed nothing to other countries becauf/ they were mere totals giving all grades of coal in one figure. It was virtually impossible, as well, to attempt a comparison of German and British internal coal prices because there was no "key." tinder the present system in Great Britain there was no machinery for a fighting fund similar ;o that of the Rhenish • Westphalian Syndicate, but the coal owners approached Mr. Stanley, President of the Board of Trade, recently and proposed a trade maintenance and development fund—a retaliatory measure.