GERMANY VISITED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 16117, 4 May 1923, Page 9

GERMANY VISITED.

RUHR AND REPARATIONS

Mr. P. E. Pattrick, late Commissioner of Crown Estates for "Western Samoa, was in England and on the Continent as late as January last.. His impression of the condition of industrial England was that trade was slowly improving, 'but 'that places which* had flourished abnormally during the war such as the Clyde and other shipbuilding centres, were still suffering severely from unemployment as the result of reaction following the cessation of hostilities. Mr. Pattrick was inclined to think that the funding of the American debt had helped to bring about a return of confidence, but with things rather upset at Homo and with Labor gaining ground in the political field, capital was still shy. Among the big works he visited in England in connection with his inquiry into cost accounting systems, were Lever Bros.' works at Port Sunlight. John Mcintosh and Sons, the Albion Mills, and the Victoria Woollen Mills at Shipley. lie found certain men among the English manufacturers most progressive, but there were still evident in many parts of England old conservative methods which had little to commend them but the respect due to old age.

Mr. Pattrick also visited Germany. On account of the trouble over the seizure of the Ruhr Valley by the French, he was told that it was impossible to get through, but thanks to the little. German ho had managed to acquire in Samoa, ho was able to reach Hamburg by means of Flushing. Minister and Bremen, just skirting the Ruhr Valley district. Ho was only in Germany three or four days, and the impression he gained, mostly from Germans on trains, was that everyone was very upset over the drastic action of the French, and were really scared about France's air force, now easily superior to any in Europe. "I am not able to speak with any authority on conditions in Germany," said Mr. Pattrick. "as I was not there very long and did not have much opportunity for personal observation, but 1 believe that a great many people are having a hard time there. That applies equally to France and England, so that, it offers no standard of comparison. The Germans argue that it would not now he possible to comply with * lie reparations as set out in the Treaty of Versailles, as Germany's wealth was gained from her industries which were based on the coal and iron supplies now in the hands of the French. How could she pay in cash if the means to make the cash were held by her creditors? There is a good deal in that argument." Mr. Pattrick returned to New Zealand via France, Switzerland. Genoa. Rome, Naples, the Suez Canal and Australia.