GERMANY OF TO-DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18265, 5 December 1922, Page 6

GERMANY OF TO-DAY.

DETERIORATION IN TRADE.

COLLAPSE OF THE MARK.

TRAVELLING DISCOMFORTS.

Summing up his impressions on his return to London from a visit to Germany, Mr. John Lawrie, managing director of William Whiteloy, Ltd., said he saw no real poverty and no signs of prosperity. Generally speaking, ho found the Germans depressed. "Merchants with whom I had done business before the war," he said, " told mo that trade had deteriorated almost beyond repair owing to the war and the depreciation of the mark. It is a popular fallacy that ori3 can get goods in Germany very cheaply. That is not my opinion. The Germans are a commercial people, and correspondingly with the depreciation of the mark tho cost of articles and commodities increases. I went into a shop for a travelling trunk, and I saw one priced 57,000 marks. This, with the British pound valued at 5000 marks, made the price of the trunk about £9 10s in English money. 1 was sine I could buy a trunk in London, despite the cheapness of the mark, at a much less cost. Tho German merchants, as I have said, put up the price of tho goods they sell as the value of the British pound increases. U*he advantage to the Britisher, therefore, is small. " From a. business point of view the Germans can make certain classes of goods, such, as leather or fancy articles, at a reasonably cheap rate, particularly if ycu buy them in sterling. But if you go to purchase man's clothes or ladies' clothes you will see a difference in the cost and in the material. The Germans know nothing at all about dress. I should think they have tho worst taste in Europe; some of the women's dresses I saw were atrocious ? " It struck me that living in Germany must be very difficult; for the people of tho middle and poorer classes it must l)€ a severe problem. A'l the hotels were crowded, particularly with Americans and British, but the etlect was artificial, I was told. A waiter in one of the best hotek in Berlin to whom I said they appeared to be very Busy, did not seem to bo at all satisfied. He told me the prices of everything had risen with the depreciation of the mark: that it was very hard to live there, and that he could not afford to purchase a suit of dress clothes, which he badly needed for his trade. Though there was apparent, prosperitv, he added, yet, people found it very difficult to live. " And if my cxporienee was universal this must be a true statement, because at the hotel I stayed at, in Berlin I paid 4900 marks for a small bedroom. I did not grumble at this, because I got marks at a good rate of exchange; but while we in England think in pounds, the Germans must think in marks. There is the difference. " Travelling in Germany, unless you are very strong, is difficult, and I would advise people not to undertake it unless they are physically fit to do so. I had finished my business a little earlier than T had expected, and when, on my return home, I applied for a seat in a sleeper, I was told I might have one if I waited a couple of days. .1 Could not wait, so decided to get home as best I could. The train I Caught was packed; thero were about 20 or 50 people even standing in the corridor near their luggage. And when I attempted to get from my compartment to tho dining-car I had to undertake ono of the greatest scrimmages I have experienced in tho whole of my life. It took mo fully an hour to get to the diningcar. And when I had finished my meal T had to undergo tho same ordeal to get back, to my seati. " The patience of the travellers was tried bv the silly practice of silly people at Aachen tryinc to get things through the customs without paying duty. Wo were three and a-balf hours late in leaving Aachen through the. action of these wouldbe smugglers. " From beginning to end I never met with the least hostility in any shape or form. I saw, as I have indicated, only & subdued, depressed, broken feeling."