THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1933 ECONOMIC GERMANY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21639, 3 November 1933, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1933 ECONOMIC GERMANY

In the news of (Germany's election campaign little mention has been made of any Government programme for economic: recovery. This : ,ileiH-c accords with the fact that the Nazi regime is primarily one of racial and party ideals. Matters of industry and trade are secondary, if of importance at all in the presentsituation. Hitler, like de Valera in the Irish Free Stale, has told his followers that for the sake of their principles they must be prepared to forgo economic advantage, and this gospel of sacrifice he has proceeded to preach to the nation at large. A recent report issued by the British Department ot Overseas Trade deals with conditions in Germany and describes this movement as difficult for the outsider to understand. This is so, for just now industrial and commercial business is the staple subject of government concern almost everywhere, and the German exception is strikingly evident. It explains, in some measure, the treatment of the .lews. They were regarded, from the very beginning of the Nazi movement, as an alum people whose admixture with the Aryan stock was undesirable and whose political views were too international to be compatible with the , national policy. To be done with foreign contacts, particularly with i dependence upon foreign supplies, I was deemed vital. It is an heroic i creed, one soundly based in the psyi chology of emotional causes, and it can be expected to rally enthusiasm i more swiftly and surely than a proj clamation of creature comforts without national dignity. It will doubt- ' less carry the Nazi cause through | this political crisis. But, the elcc--1 tion over and economic stress in--1 creasing, it must give place to ! thought about workaday needs, and ! if the Government be unable to ' make national ends meet there will j be a reaction against it not easily i stayed. Frftm the British report now quoted certain facts appear at first sight to indicate an improvement in Germany's position. The Budget of the Reich for 1932 closed with a deficit of 610,000,000 Reichsmarks, which was distinctly less unfavourable than the anticipated deficit of 800.000,000. Unemployment figures had dropped from their peak of 6.0-47.000 m February to 4,828,000 in July,' the latest point of comparison for which an official statement was provided. At their face value, these facts were encouraging, although any improvement they recorded was due to means adopted before the Nazis got into power. Unfortunately, they are not all the facts. The difficulties burdening Germany at the end of 1932 persist deplorably. Still there are heavy deficits on all public I budgets : the capital market is not ! in a fit state to finance a recovery ; j a large foreign indebtedness has » compelled the adoption of standstill i agreements and a transfer mora- ] torium : and the national currency j can be kept stable only by measures of this kind and a severe control of foreign exchange. The unemployment figures are now known to be deceptive. To the peak figure for February of last year must be added about 2,000,000 for men that had lapsed from the registers and given up attendance at the labour exchanges;official figures claiming a reduction must be similarly increased, while the reported decrease must be discounted as merely temporary, owing to the seasonal decline regularly happening at harvest-time. Significantly, there has been a marked decline in the yield of the Reich tax on wages, a fact at variance with the alleged increase of employment ; a marked decrease in export trade emphasises the revealing contrast. It is known also that official methods of employment registration have altered in the direction of including as presumably permanently employed those engaged in work that is essentially transitory. The Minister of Economics lately made the discouraging announcement that "an undertaking which demonstrably has work for no more than three men cannot be compelled to employ six —a truism offering little comfort to the other three. When the figures of foreign trade are examined they declare a situation going from bad to worse. AngloGerman trade, shrank ominously in 1032, a shrinkage the more remarkable as it followed two years of buoyancy, with a visible balance in favour of Germany. The favourable balance was last year turned into an unfavourable one, Germany's export trade falling by 41 per cent and imports by 32 per cent. As the j drop in exports represented about j £.34.000,000 at par, the decline was | considerable. It has continued into i (his year. Russia and Holland went in 1032 to first and second places in j Germany's list of customers, (lis-; placing the United Kingdom as it j fell, but the provocative Hitlerite policy has checked Russian and Dutch buying since, then, with a further prejudicial effect. The total of Germany's exports stood in September last at nearly 50,000,000 marks lower than it was two months before. Broadly, the position is that the Nazi Government cannot maintain the service on the. country's foreign debt, even when recent ; restrictions on the, transfer of interest are reckoned. The danger signals were seen by the Government a little while ago, apparently, for the .Minister of Economics spoke of instituting a more cautions policy. This announcement probably referred to both the Nazi programme of seizing private industries and the seemingly calculated affronts to foreign customers. It will be. found easier to restore confidence, among German business men than lo recover the goodwill of foreign customers; but th ( ' easier task will be difficult enough to tax the intellectual resources of the Nazi leaders, apparently still bent on politically dragooning Germany and esteeming economic recovery of relatively little moment.