NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23851, 30 December 1940, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

STAINED GLASS SECRETS

One loss that can never be made good is the shattering by enemy bombers of the stained glass windows in many British guildhalls and churches, states a contributor to the Kvening News. As far back as the 12th century Canterbury was a renowned centre of glass-painting. Much of the work was done by monks, who used and handed on the secrets which they themselves had learned in the manufactories of Chartres and Limoges. The colours were produced by fusing certain metallic oxides into the surface of the glass at a moderate heat. Each fragment Avas worked separately and later pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle. r l he craft is still carried on in the traditional way by masters of much skill. A good deal of the modern work is very beautiful, but we have never yet recaptured the secret of tiie exquisite colouring of the master glass-stainers.

FORCED LABOUR Among the many ingredients of the Nazi plan for a new European order j one has scarcely received the attention j it deserves, comments the Times, Even I before the war there was a seasonal I influx of Polish agricultural labour into ! the eastern parts of Germany. During j the past 12 months the use in Ger- ' many of Polish la hour—whether in the | form of so-called "prisoners of war," or | of gangs of workmen recruited since the i conquest of Poland by methods which i can he left to' tiie imagination—has 1 been widely extended. The same advantI age has been taken of Germany's more recent territorial aggrandisements. .Reports bine appeared at various times during the past summer of the recruiting of Czech, Danish, Norwegian, Putcli and Belgian workers to make up deficiencies of industrial or agricultural man-power in Germany. Almost all of this is forced, unwilling labour, even where the force used is confined to economic compulsion. These foreign helots iu German factories and on German farms have been driven from their hoine.s by the spectre of unemployment and starvation. GERMAN TRADE METHODS Weaknesses in Germany's external trade position are discussed in a series of articles by ;i contributor to the Times. The following is his conclusion: ''Pliable to export her high-class specialities, m!c!i as machine tools, on the requisite sale, because she needs them herself. Germany has systematically imported on credit from surrounding countries wherever she could until her credit limits were reached. "Wherever she could she paid in toys, musical instruments, glassware, china, earthenware, spectacles, dyes, drugs and printing—all commodities made of materials obtainable in the Reich. And she has sold books, patent and dramatic rights, music, films, newspapers and advertising—any kind oi commodity or service that involved no import of raw materials. So far as she has been able to spare it she has exported coal, of which there is abundance in the Reich. And she has not hesitated in Balkan countries to insist on the revalorisation of old loans and securities held in Germany and rendered worthless after the World War by the depreciation of the Austrian crown. But as the war spreads, real difficulties will arise, particularly through the exhaustion of stock of such indispensable raw materials as mineral oils, lubricants, metals and rubber."-