FARMING AND LABOUR IN GERMANY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 January 1939, Page 6

FARMING AND LABOUR IN GERMANY

AS in New Zealand* and other countries agriculture in Germany is faced with the problem of the supply of farm labour, as was disclosed at the Sixth Annual Congress on Agriculture, held in Hanover. Herr Walter Darre, Reich Minister for Agriculture, stated that, as compared with 1933, there were 400,000 fewer workers on the land, which represented a loss of about 20 per cent, of the total number. If to these were added the number of dependents, the total would be between 700,000 and 800,000. Herr Darre stated in his speech that legislation and economic measures could not, in themselves, solve this problem. In fact, he went as far as to maintain that only through an appeal to German youth to return to, or remain on, the land, for idealistic reasons, could this problem be solved. When National Socialism came to power, in 1933, one of its first tasks was to introduce an agricultural programme. T his had three objectives— to make Germany independent of foreign food supplies, to build a strong and healthy peasantry, and to establish a so-called “just price” for agricultural produce. Much was done to help the farmer and through the guarantee of a home market by the regulation of foreign trade and of foreign exchange, and a regulation of prices through market control lines upon which New Zealand is following suit—agriculture was largely secured against heavy loss, although at the price of greatly increased State control and of costs. Things went well for the first few years, but, with the introduction of the Four-Year Plan, agriculture had to take a back seat. The first consideration then—as it still is to-day— was re-armament and arge-scale reconstruction projects, which naturally drew much labour from the countryside (as in New Zealand exceDt regarding rearmament). The youth who left the countryside some years ago, and has had a taste of the easier and more comfortable life in the city, shows little desire to return. This is partly explainable also by the fact that even if he does go back, in so many cases there is little prospect of his being able to build up a home of his own. Germany's serious financial position to-dav and drastic measures proposed, as disclosed in the cabled news this week, we have aheady commented upon.