The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1941 Europe After The War

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIX, Issue 21959, 10 May 1941, Page 6

The Timaru Herald SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1941 Europe After The War

IT is now recognised that after the war there will be fundamental changes in the economic structure of Europe. Basically, the issue to be decided by the war is whether the peoples of Europe are to be allowed to co-operate of their own free will in the construction of a European “new order,” or whether they are to be compelled to accept a harsh economic system designed for them by Nagi Germany. The British Empire at the moment is engaged in a struggle for self-preservation, but, incidentally, the British people are also championing the right of all people to decide for themselves their mode of life in the future. After Germany is defeated some form of economic federation in Europe is inescapable. The war will have caused so much destruction; it will have drained the resources of the combatants so greatly that it will be necessary for all nations to establish a co-operative system enabling existing and potential resources to be pooled to some extent at least for the common good. There would have been gradual evolution towards a better system of economic life in Europe had Germany not decided several years ago that there was a chance for her to obtain absolute mastery, reducing all other nations in Europe to the status of vassal States. Nazi Germany, built as it is on fierce, primitive tribal principles, sought only the gross material advancement of the Third Reich, not the betterment of Europe as a whole.

To-day is the first anniversary of the launching of the German offensive which has resulted in the temporary enslavement of Belgium, Holland and France. By May 10 last year Denmark and Norway Were under the control of Germany and since then other victims have been claimed by the Nazi military machine. The detested shadow of the Swastika has fallen across Europe from the Arctic Circle io the Aegean Sea, and but for Britain Hitler would now be able to inaugurate hjs “new order.” While the British Empire, supported by the United States, is preparing for the counter-strokes which will shatter the mad German dream, it is timely to consider just what this dream is. Nazi Plans

In a speech last year, Dr. Funk, President of the Reictlsbank, gave some concrete details of Germany’s economic plans. The object of the “new order,” he Said, is “to guarantee to the Greater German Reich a maximum of economic security, and to the German people a maximum of consumtpion.” To achieve this, the methods are to be employed which have been Successful in bringing Germany to her present position. Europe is to be organised as an economic unit, but not as a single free trade area. This, Dr. Funk explained, does not mean complete autarky; on the other hand, though it would be possible to obtain essential supplies of all, or nearly aB, commodities inside Europe, the standard of living could be raised by organising trade with the outside world; this trade would be controlled by a central authority, which would therefore have enormous bargaining power in fixing the terms of trade. At the same time, it was implied that the plan would aim at making Europe self-supporting in essentials, so as not to be dependent upon overseas trade, however lucrative. The right of nations to associate for the purpose of improving their bargaining power was admitted, apparently, only in the case of European countries, for Dr. Funk asserted that the new Europe Would trade in Latin America with sovereign States or not at all. As regards Europe’s internal arrangements, nothing in the nature of a common currency appears to be contemplated, but the Iteichsmark would be an internatidnal currency in that international trading accounts would be settled through a clearing office in Berlin.

The picture which can be constructed at present of the German plan for Europe is one of a predominantly industrial Reich surrounded by a ring of predominantly agricultural satellite countries, the production of which is controlled by the orders which Germany chooses to place, and the extraEuropean trade of which is under German control entirely. This picture is one which, superficially, certainly offers considerable attractions to the satellite States. Those which are to any considerable extent industrialised, it is true, would face a gloomy prospect, in which absorption into the Reich might well be, economically, the brightest possibility; with the more purely agricultural or mining countries, however, the case is different. The large German market would be guaranteed to them over considerable periods of time by long-term contracts, and their chief anxiety of recent times, the lack of any market in which they were free from the com’petition of the much more efficient overseas agricultural countries, would thus be removed. The Western agricultural countries, the Netherlands and Denmark, at present find themselves in the disastrous position of having to slaughter a large proportion of their livestock because the essential imports of foreign fodder are cut off, but this, they are told, is the fault of the Allied blockade, and Germany presumably intends to include in the foreign trade of the Continent the importation of such supplies as will enable these countries to resume their dairy farming for the German market. An Industrial Monopoly

Germany’s plain intention is to preserve for herself as far as practicable an industrial monopoly in Europe. This necessarily means that increasing impoverishment of the Continent could not be avoided. Industrialisation outside the borders of the Reich would not be tolerated; it would not only be contrary to German interests, but it would also become the basis of a challenge to German military supremacy. The additional and decisive point against the Nazi “new order” is that it must involve acceptance of much more than Nazi ecouomie principles. Those who were Hitler’s economic vassals would be his spiritual vassals as well. That is why the German challenge is being so steadfastly resisted by the Democracies. Europe must be redeemed from the Nazi horror and the fact that the dimensions of the menace have been so truly revealed is the only stimulus the emancipating movement needs.