CONTINENTAL TOUR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18763, 17 January 1923, Page 6

CONTINENTAL TOUR

TRIP THROUGH GERMANY. AUCKLAND MAN'S EXPERIENCES. iFeom Ooe Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, January 16. Interesting travels on the Continent were made hv Mr E. L. Bartlett, who returned to Auckland yesterday alter an absence of 10 months. A flight in an airship horn the Croydon aerodrome to Brussels, a distance of 250 miles, formed one of Mr Bartlett s experiences. There were eight passcngcis, and the journey was accomplished m one hour 50 minutes. The people m Brussels seemed to to working hard and to be quite happy, their motto apparently being Vo “Live for the clay.” Hague and Amsterdam were next visited, and it was evident that although Holland did not take part m the war. the people arc experiencing hard times. German workmen coming into the country are prepared to work for little money, and are supplanting the Dutch workers, witli the result that there is a great deal of unemployment in Hamburg. There appears to be a quite friendly attitude toward Englishmen and Americans, I his being verv different from the (state of affairs in Berlin, where people go out of their way to show their hostility. Some theatres will not admit foreigners, and some shops will not sene them with goods, while others raise prices three or four times. -Die best dinner was procurable for 2s to 2s 6d. At times the bonks could not change £lO into marks owing to the fact that paper money could not bo printed fast enough to cope with the demand, and it was the general practice to gel £2 or £3 worth of marks at a time. The issue of single notes for 10,030 marks has partially solved the problem of carrying paper money about, but the story of a man who, on being requested to remove a large portmanteau trom a railway carriage, replied that it was merely his purse, is still applicable in some degree. On the face of things the Germans seem to bo getting on alright, and they spend all the money they receive, not Knowing what the mark is going to drop to on the morrow, TL'ne hotels winch take foreigners charge three times as much as for Gerinans, nnd there is a lax of 40 per cent, for the Government. In Cologne Mr Bartlett saw the opera “Carmen,” and hnd to pay 4000 marks for admission, the Germans hoing charged XOUU A huge system of underground tubes, staled to be the finest in the world, is in progress of construction in Berlin, and the whole place is being torn up. The regulations prevent the taking of goods out of Germany except under license, and then a heavy duty of 80 to 100 per cent, has to be paid. When crossing the frontier into Switzerland Mr Bartlett had to surrender the portmanteau he had bought in Germany because he did not have u license. -