EUROPE OUTSTRIPPED

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 334, 20 April 1928, Page 13

EUROPE OUTSTRIPPED

STRESEMANN’S warning LAGGING IN PRODUCTION

BURDENS OF GERMANY (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) Times Cable. LONDON, Wednesday. The Berlin correspondent of "The Times" says the German Foreign Minister, Herr Stresemann, spoke at a congress of German Chambers of Industry and Com merce. He discussed Germany's economic situation from an international standpoint. The keynote of his speech was the necessity for an export surplus and the interdependence of home and foreign trade and industry. In reviewing the economic situation a decade after the Great War Herr Stresemann said the injuries inflicted were still far from healed. Production on other continents had increased from 30 to 40 per cent, since 1923, whereas Europe had not even regained her pre-war level. This fact should resound through Europe like a warning cry, and force the European nations into understanding and co-operation. GERMAN GRIEVANCE Germany was perhaps the heaviest sufferer. This fact, he said, led him to emphasise once more the grievance that Germany’s entire foreign trade machinery—the fruit of decades of endeavour—was completely destroyed by the liquidation of sequestered property. Germany rejoiced at the decision of the United States regarding the restitution of German property. This seemed to him to be of fundamental significance for the future of national life. It was not right that the citizens should suffer when their States went to war. Alluding to the Dawes plan, Herr Stresemann said it was more than even necessary to realise that Germany’s obligations could only be met from an export surplus. REPARATIONS QUESTION A CURIOUS STATEMENT (Australian Press Association) BERLIN, Wednesday. Herr Stresemann made a curious statement at a meeting of industrialists to-day. He urged a suspension of party differences in order to effect a settlement of the reparation question, “for which,’’ he said, “preparations are now being made, though no decision will be reached before the autumn.’’