Germany To-Day

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6519, 7 April 1931, Page 3

Germany To-Day

WAGE CUTS AND PHICES A BLACK OUTLOOK. Outward and visible signs of a deepseated unrest arc visible in Germany at the present moment, writes the Berlin correspondent of the London Observer. This takes various forms. One can enumerate but few of them. There is the prohibition of all street collections for charity aims, in particular the “keep-thc-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 be full of authorised beggars if one society were allowed. There is the little red ticket lying on the restaurant, and cafe tables, warning customers that everything drunk comes under the new 10 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 automatic restaurants the slot machines now pour less for tho coin tendered, and the proprietors have ordered new, small glasses. In the shops, calls arc again heard for police intervention to settle prices, which vary now from one corner to another, in answer to the edict which has lowered prices at the same time as wages, but ignored questions of quality, and thereby confused both shopkeepers and housewife to tho limit of exasperation. The New Tobacco Tax With the new tobacco and beer tax the unfortunate citizen pays out the few pfennigs he has deducted from the week’s housekeeping for the infinitesimal luxury he 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 tiie rent always played as high a part in the householder’s budget as one-fourtli (in extreme cases even a third) of the income and rates were paid by the ground landlord, a percentage of income tax to be contributed to the local commune is felt as a sad hardship. There is but little need to recount the weariness of the civil servant at his 6 per cent, cut in salary from February 1; it could not well be done in January, seeing that his insurance premiums fall due then and are deducted by the State at the source. The general changes have all been brought about by Presidential decree, promulgating laws necessary for Ger.many’s Budget is to balance, which were not likely to find a majority in any Beichstag. The Sources of Hitlerism. The country is promised more unemployment, more misery, and more unrest during tho coming months. In this deeply dissatisfied Germany, whose financial reforms have touched all classes of the population, various municipal elections have taken place during tho past few weeks. All of them show an increase of Hitlerism, National Socialism, or Fascism, according to whichever term is preferred for the peculiarly German movement. Something comparable only to a national religious up-

hcaval has token deep root in the people’s minds. When Adolph Hitler called to his voters to tear up tho Treaty of Versailles, not to mention other treaties just as irksome, he was only saying in more turgid terms what the Nationalist magnate Hugenbcrg had been saying for months before. But Hitler, with no ballast of pre-war prejudice, great fortune and class sentiment behind him, scored a signal triumph over the authorised proclaimcr of these 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 tho Nationalists of the old school in as many years. Tho man himself may arouse, misgivings to those looking for a loader for new Germany. But this is the one-eyed man in the country of the blind. The best analogy is that of a person who is socially impossible until he has a. million of money behind him—when all gates arc opened as if by magic. Hitler has millions in votes —nearly a quarter of tho nation’s voices. No Fear of Revolution. There is absolutely no fear of any sudden overthrow of the existing form of Government —the average Hitlerite at the moment is well pleased with any form of dictatorship which excludes parliament;'!nanism—and, on the other hand, the Social Democratic Party is still the firm bulwark of Rcpublicanism. It, is only the middle classes who have turned Hitler wards. The present losses of the Socialists in Germany arc due solely to tho growth of unemployment ; the Communist enemy is always present,- and Hitler gains no followers from organised Labour. Politicians here consider to-dav that Germany is confronted with a crisis at no very distant date. Tho best financial heads in the country think that Germany may very likely ask for a moratorium on the Young Plan payments laid down and guaranteed at home, but, the direct payments made into tho international bank at Basic may very well cease for some time. Then, it is held, will come the hopedfor revision of the Versailles Treaty and the Young Plan, and a general shaking-up of European conditions.