TENTACLES OF STINNES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18455, 19 July 1923, Page 9

TENTACLES OF STINNES.

ACTIVITY IN SILESIA.

POTENTIAL WAR FACTORY. A. ana N.Z. PARIS. July 17. The Warsaw.correspondent of the Matin states that great anxiety exists in Polish political and industrial circles over Hen* Hugo Staines' activities in Upper Silesia, where he ha 3 acquired numerous foundries and factories, which could rapidly be transformed into one of the most formidable war .on the Continent.

Most of the Kaitowitz mines have passed into Stinnes' hands.

STINNES THE MERCHANT.

GERMAN PEN-PICTURE.

The following portrait of Hugo Stinnes appeared recently in the Vienna Morgen from the pen of Herr Maximilian Harden, the famous publicist. _ Herr Harden savs that this is the Stinnes of the period before the international manipulations of the last- three years :— - . - He really exists. In Mulheim, on -the Ruhr, where he was bom in Berlin. Hamburg, Prague, Vienna, Buda Pest, Carlsbad, Oberhof, Rome, Amsterdam, —wherever there is something to organise or to negotiate. His father said grandfather were barge-owners on the Ruhr. The grandfather already knew, and adopted, the system of the vertical -trust; instead of acquiring large numbers of similar works—- his case shipping companies built his own barges and transported his own coal. The grandson extended, the system. His paper comes from his own forests, his own sawmills, his own cellulose factories, his newspapers are turned out from hi 3 own printing works; but this is of little importance. It is not worth mentioning alongside the coal and iron mines, the iron and steel and engineering works, the power stations and shipping in his hands. And the owner of this wealth, waxing wish each new moon and waning with none, calls himself simply Hugo Stinnes, merchant. This is not a pose, a gesture; he wants to appear no more than he is. He became a merchant when with 50.000 gold marks, received from his father, he founded his independent business. He remained a merchant whose trade with English coal tiU 1914 was not less than his German coal trade. "Without foreign help he made himself the mightiest of his kind. His mother was a kindly woman of Gallic-German extraction, nee Coupienne. From her ho inherited his dark complexion and his chestnut hair. He has not the Jewish appearance which s some people falsely attribute to him. He re sembles the German burgesses portrayed by the painter Matthias Grunewald; his head might sit on the neck of an hon ourable member of a Cologne guild, such as we see in pictures by old Cologne painters. When many years ago _ I saw him at a meeting of a board of directors ... I saw the glow of fanatical eyes over narrow cheeks. These cheeks are now fuller, the lips somewhat heavier yet these eyes, which now search the depth of other mysteries, can still laugh gaily or shoot lightnings of mistrust. In those days he rarely left the boundaries of his mining and iron district; only now and then, after a ten-hour day of negotiations, would he come to Berlin, but not for its hedonism j that had no attraction for him. In his schooldays he spent the holidays sometimes in the mountains, sometimes in Luxembourg, sometimes in Noordwijk,' the mighty melodies of which enchanted and soothed the heart even of this visionary. Much of the time he sat beside his mother, in the old --Aulheim house, which looked like a guild master's in tho warm corner of bourgeois German family life. In early morning the knitted cosy kept tho coffee warm. Midday and evening all joined around the table. The father was at the same time teacher, friend, and companion of tRe children, who, while quite young had had to listen to reports of complicated business transactions and then to repeat what they had learned. Stinnes' mother was his father's only help. Clothing, furniture, pottery, everything the simplest possible, expressed the "nature of this Rhineland family. In days when it was the custom for heirs of' industrial and financial magnates to possess a horse, a motor-boat, a discreet bachelor's flat, and a huge private banking account, these children still loved the home; and Hu?o Stinnes, later to be the instructor of German ambassadors, carried his silver watch on a steel chain.

Even to-day, like the father, he wears raw sailor boots, impossible lounge suits, ready-made neckties, and an old bowler hat. He does not smoke, drinks only light wine, is unconcerned as to the taste of what he eats. Heir Emil Kirdorf lives magnificently in Streithof. Herr August Thyssen lives in Chateau Landsberg. Round _ and below the hill where Krupp's mansion stands the directors' of the company have magnificent villas. Merchant Stinnes remains where he is. His study is not much larger than Michael Angela's, and sometimes behind the forehead of the Mulheim man, for the length of a lightning flash, there ia a physical resemblance to BuonarottU -

FREE TRADE "DIE HARDS/'

RALLY IN THE COMMONS.

PREPARING FOR.CHALLENGE.

PREFERENCE TO BE OPPOSED By Telegraph— Association Copyright. (Received 9.5 p.m.) . . A. and N.Z. LONDON, July 17. A meeting of members of the House of Commons, mostly Liberals, with a few Labour members, formed a permanent Parliamentary committee to promote, the interests of Free Trade. Sir A.' Mond said that it was obvious that Free Trade was likely to, bo challenged in the hear future more seriously than in the past/ He urged that a close watch be kept on the activities of the Empire Development Committee

The meeting adopted a resolution expressing determination to oppose any form of protection, whether advocated on tho . basis of Imperial preference or on the plea of. assisting British agriculture.