MISERY IN GERMANY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 929, 30 January 1924, Page 11

MISERY IN GERMANY.

“COUNTRY’S BACK BROKEN. HIGH PRICES OF FOOD. CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 26. Tqjvards the end of last year Mr J. B. Merrett, of Christchurch, who is visiting Britain in connection with the Dominion’s egg-export trade, was in Germany. In a letter dated Berlin, December 1, to a resident here, he gives some of his impressions of the state of things in that country. He writes:—

“There is no doubt this is a wonderful country. No amount of reading can give the slightest conception of Germany as it is. The bac\ of the country is absolutely broken commercially. To visit Berlin alone gives one a false impression, but I have got out into the country towns and the position is appalling. Many of the business places are closed and the wages of workmen have been greatly reduced. How the people continue to exist I cannot imagine. “The loss of the Ruhr is like closing Up <the West Coast tor coal or burv for grain. Even the trains go at half speed to save fuel. An export trade would help them, but living is so costlv that all classes of goods are marked up at higher prices than we can buy them for in England. Butter is 4s per lb., bread Is per loaf, while meat is beyond purchase. In some of the restaurants you pay up to 10s for a tenderloin steak. A breakfast of bacon and eggs costs 65.” Referring to tho collapse of the mark, Mr Merrett says:—“For once I have been a billionaire. I had 700 billions in notes yesterday. The figures stagger you, and everyone runs round with a notebook in which to do his calculations. They put a tax of 100 per cent, on all foreigners who stay at hotels and go to public functions. \Vhat the end will be one does not care to think. Of course, in the city one sees the rich living in luxury, but the streets have plenty of beggars. Maimed soldiers stand about the streets, blind soldiers are led by intelligent dogs that make an appeal to the purse. 1 have seed two or three women in a park with their half-dozen or dozen children, ill-clad and hungrylooking, appealing for help.”