Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MAY 22, 1939. THE GERMAN NEMESIS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 145, 22 May 1939, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, MAY 22, 1939. THE GERMAN NEMESIS.

Endeavour as may the leaders of Nazi Germany to win economic salvation for the nation, their efforts continue to reap meagre success. Indeed, if credence is to be placed on the most recent authoritative surveys emanating from the lleich, tlie position is steadily deteriorating. It is a galling Experience for the advocates of sell-snfiiciency and the champions of an economically independent State, for it, effectively disproves both their theories and modus operandi. The anomaly of striving to preserve the form and life of a complete unit in a world that has irrevocably abandoned such a conception cannot be less apparent to Nazi leaders than to outside observers, but their commitment to a ruthless political objective has tied their hands. In the meantime fresh chapters are steadily added to an already unhappy record. Such a wellinformed journal as the Financial Times declares that inflation is imminent in spite of forced loans and the regimentation of industry, while in the industrial sphere the inferior quality of exports is exacting further toll. The latest trade returns reveal that in the first quarter of the present year a fall of more than thirteen millions has been experienced —a significant figure. The trend of Germany’s foreign trade was sharply reversed last year, an export surplus of •133,000,000 Reichsmarks in 1937 being converted into a surplus of imports of a like figure. In no year of the Nazi regime have exports exceeded one-half of the value of those of 1930. The barter and blocked mark systems have to an extent operated in a deleterious manner, but the fact remains that a nation that formerly enjoyed the confidence of world traders, and was renowned for the quality of her goods, no longer occupies that position. Any hopes that may have been entertained that Germany’s territorial coups would have improved her economic position—and there is no doubt that such aspirations were felt—have sulfered disappointment. Gains from the absorption of the Czechoslovak districts, in particular, were considerable, but the scales have been disturbed in an alarming manner. The Czech market was not very valuable to Brit-

ain, which, on the other hand, imported about £7,000,009 worth of Czechoslovak goods annually. For Germany to expect to retain all of this trade is over-ambitious. The incorporation of Austria within the Reich has disturbed the equilibrium, too, offsetting the direct benefits that might have been anticipated from the union. In spite of desperate panaceas the plain truth is that trade continues to shrink, which is an experience as unhappy for the world as for Germany herself. The essence of the Nazi programme from the beginning has been to devote the nation’s productive capacity as far as possible to military purposes, and the ability to produce food, clothes, and similar domestic necessities has contracted. No greater indictment of this policy could have been voiced than that by Dr Brinkmann, who was Dr Funk’s assistant at the lteichsbank, and who has been retired by the Fuehrer. The State, he points out, takes 55,000 million marks out of a national income of 108,000 million marks—a proportion that cannot be retained. A leading authority asserts that the books of every German business concern are filled with the Reich’s I.O.TJ.’s. Only when they have been satisfactorily met will Germans and all European nations breathe more easily'.