THE GERMAN FOOD SHORTAGE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22718, 2 November 1935, Page 25

THE GERMAN FOOD SHORTAGE

TO THE EDITOR Sir, —Butter 3s per lb! Germany is short of butter —desperately short—and not only is she short of butter, but the meat available is being sold at "controlled" prices, and dripping is wellnigh unprocurable. The article dealing with the above appears on page 14 of your Monday's issue, and one portion of it reads, " Foreign exchance from Dr Schacht's secret Reichsbank reserve has had to be drawn upon to enable supplies of butter to be bought abroad." Further on the article states that " in Denmark alone 20,000 tons have been bought with Dr Schacht's consent.'' What a wizard Dr Sehacht is! Few men to-day wield such power over the conditions under which the people of a nation must exist, and this power that determines the very existence of the people is financial power. Financial power is all-power-ful to-day. because barter is impracticable and impossible. To-day. in some instances, many men contribute to the manufacturing or producing of one article, and in other instances a few men aided by machinery contribute towards the production of many articles, and those articles go Into the common pool, upon which we

must all draw, and our method of drawing from this pool is by the use of money. Consequently, it will be seen that he who controls money or finance controls the degree of comfort, or, as it is at present, the degree of semi-starvation, want and misery to which the people are subjected. Dr Schacht calls into aid his secret reserve. Tlub is a priceless gem, and one wonders just how long the public will be blinded by such statements. The ultimate payment for goods procured by one country from another must be in goods returned, if payment is made at all, and meanwhile the amount is represented in figures on which interest is due, and goods are forwarded to the value of "the interest. The figures can be quite easily written up by a bank, and the people produce by toil the goods to pay'the interest. When these anomalies have been removed by definite action on the part of determined politicians, then and then only shall we be able to trade internationally on a sane, equitable and practical basis, and we shall fail to reach such items as "German Food Shortage." It is for the people to see that their political representative gives his urgent attention and wholehearted support to the necessary reformation of our monetary system. —I am, etc., Ehoa. Dunedin. October 31.