GERMANY TO-DAY

Hokitika Guardian, 21 March 1931, Page 6

GERMANY TO-DAY

WAGE-CUTS AND PRICES. A BLACK OUTLOOK. GROWTH OF HITLERISM. Outward and visible signs of a deepseated unrest are visible In Germany at the present moment, writes the Her. lin correspondent of the London “Observer.” This takes various ijfonns. One can enumerate hut few of them. There is the prohibition of all street collections for charity aims, in particular and the “keep-the-pot-boiling” effort of the Salvation Army, which did wonders for Berlin’s poor. This time, says the new police chief, Herr Gryschinski, there are too many who need help, and the streets would he full of authorised beggars if one society were allowed. There is the little red ticket lying on the restaurant and cafe tables, warning consumers that everything drunk comes under the new ten-per-cent tax, to which the serving of all liquors, save milk, is liable. Ferocious arguments as to whether the thin beef-tea euphemistically called bouillon is a food, as advertisers of patent foods would have it, or a drink, necessitate the threats of police sometimes before bills arc settled amicably. In the automatic restaurants the slot machines now pour less for the coin tendered, and the proprietors have ordered new, small glasses. In the shops, calls are again hoard for police intervention fe> settle prices, which vary now from one corner to another, in answer to the edict widen has lowered prices at the same time as wages, hut ignored questions <>! quality and thereby eonfusod both shopkeepers and liouscwile In the limit of exasperation.

The New .Tobacco Tax

With the now tobacco and beer tax tho unfortunate citizen pays out the lew pfennigs he has deducted from the week’s housekeeping for the infinites), mal luxury lie permits himself. There is no real reduction in the cost, of living. as promised when wages and salaries were cut. There is the introduction of rates, as distinct from taxes, in the German household. In a country where the rent always plays as high a part in the householder's budget as one-fourjh (in extreme cases even a third)'of the income' and rates were paid by the ground landlord, a percentage of income tax to he contributed to the local commune is felt as a sad hardship. There is hut little need to recount

the weariness of the civil servant, at liis 6 per cent, cut in oalitry from February I; it could not well he done in January, seeing that his insurance premiums fall due then and are deducted by the State af, the source. The general changes have all been brought about by Presidential decree, promulgating laws necessary if Germany’s Budget is t" balance, which were not likely to find a majority in

any Reichstag. The Sources of Hitlerism

The country is promised more unemployment. more misery, and more unrest during the coming months. In this deeply dissatisfied Germany, whose new financial reforms have touched nil classes of the population, various municipal elections have taken place during the past few weeks. All of them show an increase of Hitlerism, National-Social-ism, or Fascism, according to whichever term is preferred for the peculiarly German movement. Something comparable only to a national religions upheaval has taken deep root in the

people's minds. When Adolph Hitler called to his voters to tear up the Treaty of Versailles. not- to mention other treaties just as irksome, he was only saying in

more turgid terms what the Nationalist magnate Hu gen berg had been saying for months before. But Hitler, j with no ballast of pre-war prejudice, great fortune and class sentiment be- | hind him. scored a signal triumph ove r j the authorised proclaimcr of those subversive principles. He caused Germany’s ex-enemies, her present creditors, to sit up and take notice. He gained more publicity for his views abroad in as many days than the Nationalists of the old school in as many years. The man himself may amuse misgivings to those looking for a leader for new Germany. But this is the one-evod man in the country of the blind. The best analogy is that of a person who is socially impossible until he lias a million of money behind him when all gates are opened as if by magic. Hitler lias millions in votes—nearly i\ quarter fo the nation's voices. No Fear of Revolution. ’I here is absolutely no fear of any sudden over throw of the existing form of government—Hie average Hit-'

lerite at the moment is well pleased with any lonn of dictatorship which excludes parliamentarian ism—and, on the other hand, the Social Democratic Party is still the firm bulwark of republicanism. It is only the middle classes who have turned HTMcrwards.

The present losses of the Socialists in Germany are due solely to the growth of unemployment; the Communist enemy is always present, and Hitler gains no followers from organised LabourPoliticians here consider to-day that Germany is confronted with a crisis at no very distant date. The best- financial heads in the conntry think that Germany may very likely ask for y moratorium on the Young Plan payments within two or three months. She will not- suspend the interest on Political debts and indirect- payments laid down and guaranteed at home, but the direct payments made into ihe international bank at Basle may very well eon so. for some time. Then, it is held, will come the hoped-for revision of the Versailles Treaty ami the Young Plan, and a general shaking-up j or European conditions. I