THE HAND OF STINNES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18316, 5 August 1921, Page 2

THE HAND OF STINNES

REACHING OUT FOR BRITISH TRADE. A COMPANY IN LONDON. (Feoh Oub Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, August 4. New Zealanders who marched across the Hohenzoliern Bridge at Cologne after the armistice were interested to see in a country uudovastated by war, a people suffering from the result of food shortage yet busy already with the industries of peace. . Brilliantly lit cars ran on a network of electric lines through the cities and across the country from town to town. At Leverkusen, the groat chemical and* dye works —which had made vast quantities of high explosives and poison gas for the Gorman armies in the field—were again engaged in the arts of peace. The famous Duisberg, head ot the firm, made no secret of it that German dyes, the result of years of patient research by hundreds of chemists, would soon again bo competing successfully with English dyes. Away beyond the Rhine the artisans of Solingen—the Sheffield of Germany—were no longer concerned with the making of machine guns, rifles, and bayonets. Already they were busy with the manufacture of razors, and scissors and knives. The retail shops were doing brisk business with the Army of Occupation. At Mulheim one saw the machines making cables, barbed wire, and fencing wire, and were not a little surprised to find that this particular firm had an agent in Auckland. The manager mentioned the fact with some degree ot pride, and a cute twinkle in his eye. At night the eastern sky was aglow with the ruddy light of many blast furnaces. It is true that there was a certain degree of Bolshevistic discontent among the workers in tlie great industries, but it was also evident that, the magnates of commerce and manufacture would deal with that in due course. On all hands there wgre evidences of that return to patient and organised industry which, before the war, had given Germany a foremost place in the commerce of the world. Disregarding to a convenient extent the orders of the army against fraternisation, one heard of capable and farseeing organisers determined to make up for the loss of the war by a gain in commerce. And one heard occasionally mentioned the name of the Napoleon of German industry—Herr Stinnes. During the war Herr Stinnes had some say in tne policy of the country and in the control of German manufactures. After the war he continued to be a dominating factor in Germany industry. He got many concessions from the new Government that ho could not obtain under the old Monarchistic regime, and there were soon indications that he was looking forward to capturing much of the trade that Germany had lost as the result of war and the British blockade. Writing recently in The Times, Dr Alonzo Taylor, one of the leading American authorities on the economic conditions in Europe, stated that Germany occupies a position of,peculiar potentiality as a manufacturing nation to-day. She has the best labour in Europe. Her labourers are recovering their traditional thrift and ambition, and they are completely disillusioned as to communism. In short, in the hands of the German employer of to-day they are the most docile workers in Europe. He mentioned some other conditions, including the low position of the German mark, thatplaced the German manufacturer in a position to undersell practically any manufacturer in any country in the world. But it is not in Germany alone that the hand of Stinnes is reaching out for trade beyond the seas, and across the Continent. Quito recently we were told of great concessions obtained in Russia —concessions cheaply purchased in the depression into which that unfortunate country has been plunged by Bolshevist rule. And now comes the startling fact that, not content with these gains, Herr Stinnes has commenced operations within the British Erapire. Now Zealanders who make a study of the English commercial journals will have been interested in the story of a new Loudon firm as unfolded in the Mercantile Guardian, copies of which reached New Zealand by a recent mail. It is the story of the inauguration of The Products Corporation, Limited —a title sufficiently wide and nondescript to cover a multiplicity of interests. When inquiries were first made at the office of this company, the Guardian was assured that the company was British throughout, and that there was not a farthing of German money in the business. Later, Mr Stanley Hopkins, managing director of the corporation, was interviewed. There had been rumours that Herr Hugo Stinnes was at the back of the organisation, and that it was to be run in the interests of German products. Mr Hopkins now admitted that his corporation would, on the one hand, act as agents for the Deutsche Wildcrmannwerke, which makes raustic potash and chlorate of potash. It would also act for some four or five other Gorman manufactories handling steel, aluminium, and paper pulp. How far Herr Stinnes was connected with these industries Mr Hopkins was unable to say, but there was no doubt that he was largely interested in the Wildcrmannwerke. Another branch of the company’s business would be the supply of British goods, consisting mainly of raw materials, to Germany, anti Mr Hopkins anticipated that the turnover in that direction would amount to very considerable figures. As for the rest, the corporation desired to obtain a foothold in the British export tiade, though, ho admitted, it remained to be seen whether the directorate was so constituted as to achieve success in an indent business, and, further, whether support would bo forthcoming from importers abroad and manufacturers at Home, to a company which frankly avowed its intention to trade with Germany. The corporation was credited with an ambitious programme and would require very large capital to carry it out successfully. The potash industry is one that was almost a German monopoly before the war, and a member of this firm informed the representative of the Mercantile Guardian that it would be an important item in the operations of the corporation, and that they were successfully cornering the market. It may be doubted, however,' whether Germany is now in a position to do this, as, since the return of Alsace to .France, the great mines there are no longer in German hands. It does not however, require a very vivid imagination to see the detrimental possibilities that can be exorcised in regard to British trade generally by a firm such as His esisWiHorl in T ondon yet >g a vastly preponderant interest iri goods made in Germany. And it is not at all unlikely that the powerful hand of Herr Hugo Stinnes is already reaching out with a view to exercising a pressure thpt may prove detrimental to British industry.