GERMAN FEARS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21962, 5 March 1946, Page 3

GERMAN FEARS

FAMINE, INFLATION FOOD CUT EFFECTS LESS DESIRE TO WORK BLACK MARKET GROWS (in a .m.) LONDON. March 4. Drastic food cuts in the British rone in Germany has focussed attention on the situation and compounded several Brave factors, reports tire Yorkshire Post's special correspondent in Germany. “'The fear of famine dominates them all, but the haunting fear of inflation keeps it company," he says. "Almost everybody seems to have plenty of money and little legitimate use for it. Food rationing, maintenance of price controls by the German authorities, and new taxes which are absorbing surplus money are among the means being used to combat it. Foraging Better Than Earning

“A third factor is that besides the diminishing physical canacitv to work which less food brings in a country in which only 4.000,000 out of the original 10,000,000 men in the prime of life are left to do hard civilian work, there is already a diminishing incentive to work. The reason for this is that many townspeople with savings or personal possessions to barter can live better by foraging for food and fuel than by earning paper marks. "Tt is expected that one of the effects of food cuts will be an increase in black marketing, which flourishes in almost every large centre at prices ranging from 10 times to one hundred times the legal prices. Black Market's Dangers

"The black market has a twofold importance. It is not only anti-social, but the logical place for the resistance movement to begin if the Germans should become so minded. The same unscrupulous persons who to-day are engaged in the illegal procurement and sale of necessities would be in a position to procure guns and ammunition for those who might want to use them against the occupation forces.

“The broad implications everywhere are that Germany can properly survive only as an economic whole. The fear at the moment is an epidemic of scurvy and. because of the lack of soap, scabies have increased sharply. The battle of ’■ igifcr has been won. but it is only one battle in a protracted campaign.”