LIFE IN GERMANY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16943, 18 January 1923, Page 8

LIFE IN GERMANY.

IMPRESSIONS OF A NEW ZEALANDER. An interesting account of conditions in Germany last November is given by Mr R, G. Alatthews, of Christchurch, iu a letter written in Berlin on November 30, to a friend in this city. Air Matthews went to the Old Country on business connected with the commercial ■side of the motion picture industry and fie has spent some time in France and Germany a.s well. He has seen a good deal of Germany; not Vmly the cities but also the country places. He travelled by train from Paris to Cologne and from there motored down the Rhine to Coblenz, Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, and thence went bv train to Berlin. “ On paper the English pound looks pretty good, and over there you probably think that every 20s is worth about 30,000 marks,” writes Air Matthews. *’ So it is in theory, but iri practice it’s altogether different and it’s pretty hard to get anything exceptionally cheap. Even if 'one does so, there’s no chance of getting it out of Germany, unless, of course, the article is bought in bulk and goes out as samples under the export license held only by the seller. G-o'ods in shop windows seldom have price tickets and the consequence is that when an outsider prices an article it’s generally an opportunity for the shopman to run the whipsaw over him and quote an unreasonable price. HIGH-PRICED COLLARS. “ or instance, I bought three collars the other day and hud to pay 3600 marks for them. As a comparison, I came from Frankfurt to Berlin by train the previous night—first class and w ith sleeper, a non-stop, fast express journey taking ten hours—and it cost me less than half the price of three collars! Yet, in Cologne, .1 got the hotel porter to purchase three collars pud they cost me 1000 marks, and you can be sure that the porter had charged tor his corner. Practicaly everything me buys is taxed from 10 to 40 per cent by the Government, on top 'of its original price and the consequence is that the shopkeeper really doesn’t want to sell, but would rather hold on to bis goods in the hope of the Commission stabilising the mark. But as far as I can make. out that quantity will sure take some stabilising! FOOD RTOTS IN COLOGNE. “ A couple of days before I left Cologne, food riots broke ’out there and L got in the thick of one dust-up where about forty mounted, and twenty fo'ot police dispersed the crowd after several food shops had been looted Taken altogether, it was a happy looting and well-fed crowd rather than a mob of hunger-stricken rioters as described in the papers next day. T notice, however, that the British troops who occupy Cologne are now keeping order, sc matters evidently got out of 'the Lands of the police. Opinion here ui Berlin is that it won’t lie long before riots spreacj all Over the country and many authoritative judges consider a revolution imminent. For the life- of ir.e. however, I can’t see the poverty which is said to exist here. Of course I might not have been in the right quarter to see it, but I’ve seen Berlin and several of its districts, and, in my opinion, the people look more prosperous than the French people and for that natter, in better condition than man? m London.” Air Alatthews. after describing » visit to Potsdam, said that it was his intention to go on to Leipfig and Hamburg and then back to London. He was allowed to remain Only a certain time in Germany according to his passpert.