FALL OF MARK AS SWINDLE

Otago Witness, Issue 3590, 2 January 1923, Page 22

FALL OF MARK AS SWINDLE

Germany is a malingerer—a humbug—in the opinion of Mr C. Cl ax ton Turner, who writes in the National Review on ‘ The Great German Booby Trap.” A depreciated rate of exchange is a very serious complaint, that may well cause the death of a nation; hut in th:s case the original attack, caused by war, took a comparatively mild form. The patient is described as simulating the symptoms in an aggravated form in the hope of effecting a swindle. Except in the case of some of the unskilled workers, the low value of the mark has little detrimental effect on Germans. Everywhere in Germany cafes are crowded, and the middle classes deny themselves nothing in reason. Most Englishmen in Germany look at exchange value (the “valuta”) solely from an English point of view; hut when a railway porter is rewarded with a fivemark note, valued by an Englishman at something less than a penny, he is receiving what he regards, with, a good deal of reason, as five shillings. An Englishman stays at his hotel for a week, and his bill is less than a sovereign. He gives the hall porter a 50-mark note, and the porter consider* that he has received £2 10s. The broad fact is that the internal scale of charges has been multiplied by anything up to 10, and sometimes by much less. For instance, a good Gorman cigar is obtainable for three marks, or only four times its pre-war price. Mr Turner has never found any commodity that has been increased in price more than 10 times, except such articles as involve importation from other countries. In those cases the goods are out of reach of all except foreigners and the extremely rich. Germans of the former military class, aa well as business men, spend money like water night after night. Earlier in tne day they have been known to lament their parlous state, and to seek the business friendship of England. Sometimes a pretence is made that English goods arc wanted, but this is only a method of trying to induce visitors to take up agencies. It is sadly admitted that there is a prejudice in England against German travellers. Samples obtained from London are sent to German factories fo be copied. Mr Turner believes that upper-class Germans are the servants of the valuta just as they were formerly the un-uniformed servants of militarism; that their service is to divert attention front the driving force and purposes of the valuta; and that a large supply of the paper currency, and possibly a private note-printing machine, is their gratoful country’s reward. An experienced British Continental representative can travel in all countries at an average cost of £3O a week. At the rate of exchange when Mr Turner wrote, this w T ould cost a German traveller the equivalent of £1950 a week; yet Europe is crowded with German commercial travellers. It is obvious that the firms represented have some method of evading the valuta.