Germany’s Drive For Balkan Trade

Southland Times, Issue 23634, 8 October 1938, Page 6

Germany’s Drive For Balkan Trade

It has been argued by supporters of Germany’s policy that the gradual extension of Nazi economic influence in south-east-ern Europe is the best guarantee for peace. They suggest that this region is the obvious market for Greater Germany and that while trade flows unimpeded across the Balkan frontiers the motive for territorial expansion must cease to exist. Whether or not this view of the position is the correct one, there can be no doubt that Nazi policy has been designed to make it a matter of fact rather than theory. It was reported on Thursday that Herr Walther Funk, the Minister of Economics, is already actively engaged on a mission in Yugoslavia and Turkey. A new trade treaty is being drafted in Belgrade and it is claimed that under the proposed conditions Germany will be able to absorb one-half of Yugoslavia’s production. According to the Angora correspondent of The Daily Telegraph it is understood that Herr Funk’s mission in southeast Europe is “the creation of a new trade route from India ....

by which she will regain domination of the Balkans and increase her economic influence in the

Near East.” The first reaction to this news in the average New Zealander is likely to be one of mild indifference, tinged with relief. If Germany is busy in the south-east, it may be argued, her trade will prosper, conditions will improve, and the edge of imperialist ambitions should be blunted. No doubt Britain and France will suffer trade losses in the process; but these are - trivial compared with the fearful losses of modern war; and if war can. be prevented nothing else really matters. A glance at the facts, however, makes it difficult to endorse this comfortable but rather superficial viewpoint. If Germany made use of normal trade methods the present economic expansion would be wholly desirable: it has been claimed everywhere that freer trade is the best guarantee for world security. But Germany has established what seems to be a brand new economy, although observers with a knowledge of history have pointed out that actually it is strikingly similar to the economy of the ancient slave States. Capitalism still exists in Germany; but it has been centralized under a rigid Government control. The Nazi system allows the State to keep costs —including wages—at minimum figures and to “borrow” surpluses, not for reinvestment in productive works, but for the building of 1 armaments. In recent months the German Government has decreed that steps' must be taken to prevent wages from rising and to force citizens to do any kind of work allotted to them. It should be obvious, then, that the aim of Nazi policy is certainly not the material improvement of the people. Everything is to be subordinated to the programme of political expansion; and the trade agreements already signed. with neighbouring States have been framed in such a way that political and economic considerations are inseparable. Germany’s exchange clearing system was arranged to obviate the difficulties caused by . the lack of foreign currency. It has been used deliberately to place Germany heavily in debt to the smaller States of south-eastern Europe and has then left its creditors no alternative apart from increasing their German imports, usually in goods of no real value to the importing country, and. frequently in armaments. According to details published in a recent book, “Bloodless Invasion” by Dr Einzig, and summarized by Vernon Bartlett in World Review, there are other methods that have proved equally successful, “The clearing arrangements were altered so that current imports < and exports should balance each other. Germany then bought Hungarian and Rumanian wheat, Greek tobacco, Turkish raisins or Yugoslav timber without loss’ of foreign exchange (since they were bought through the clearing system) and resold them abroad, receiving much-needed foreign exchange in return. She thus spoilt the foreign market for the Hungarian, Rumanian, Greek, Turkish or Yugoslav exporters and brought them still more under her influence.” The salient points in the present situation, then, are becoming clearer. Germany is expanding in south-eastern Europe by means of a , system which breaks down normal trade conditions and tends to set up a monopoly backed always by the threat of force. And this expansion gives no relief to the German people, but merely brings an increasing population under the rigid control of Nazism. We have said before that the German people are not enemies to peace. It is the Nazi regime, under which they are forced to share the relentless drive for world power, that threatens the security of the nations.