Britons In Germany Have Become "Poor Relations" Of The German Population

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 December 1948, Page 5

Britons In Germany Have Become "Poor Relations" Of The German Population

t . (Special Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, Nov. 30 (Rec. 6 pin).—According to the ‘‘Daily Express” correspondent in Hamburg the British ‘‘are rapidly becoming poor relations of the Germans.” The latest symbol in Ihe change of Anglo-German relations, he says, has been the decision of Kiel trade unionists to cold shoulder British men and women as a protest against the Military Government s decision to destroy a large part of a torpedo experimental station.

The Kiel Geimans will also cease co-operation with the Ger-man-English Club. The Germans, he continues, hinted that they did not like the name of the British “Victory Club’’ in Hambourg. It is now called the "Hamburg Club.” Senior British officials now find it too expensive at the Anglo-German Club and started to improve relations, but Germans can afford it. “The Germans ask them to their homes or to German restaurants for six-course meals, unknown in Britain,” says the ccorrespondent. “When a Briton wants to return this hospilality what can he do? He cannot afford German restaurant prices at the present exchange rate He is ashamed to invite Germans to eat army rations in British messes or clubs. “There are two reasons for this new relationship. One is a top level in “Woo the Germans” policy, which credits them with being nearly always right. The other is German currency reform This sent every production graph leaping upwards; has filled the shops with goods, brought out food from farms, and given the people fairly stable money to spend. Even the British and Americans, who carried out the reform, are amazed by its effects. Industrial production is now 70 per cent, of the 1936 figure—a boom year, when Goering started his ‘Guns instead of butte? production drive. “To Germans this means prosperity. To the Briton it means poverty He used to get 40 marks to the pound

> and now he gets 13 i and everything costs three times as much. “This absurd and artificial exchange is very close to the rate 1 on which Hitler ran his Reich. ? ‘‘The British in Germany have been '• . “ to cut their petrol consumption ”Iby 50 per cent, to save dollars. Not ); so the Germans. They are excused j the call for austerity. The fight to t halt the dollar debt of £300,000,000 a year for imports of food, petrol, oil r feeds and fertilisers, which is given r to them is not a German worry. So - cheerfully, they ask the Anglo-Ameri-i can Bipartite Board in Frankfort for " S s ,2i n . uc \ P e trol as they want. The t British demur and say it could be t cut by 30 per cent without harming s German economy, but the Americans, t not short of petrol and with plenty of r dollars, say Let them have it!’ ‘and the Germans get it. v “Of course it is intended only for i business purposes. Pleasure and i week-end motoring without special s permits is forbidden. But if you are y ; caught the fine ranges from 3s to i 30s. The Germans get a monthly a I ration averaging 15 gallons a car at 1 ( the pre-war price of 3s a gallon. The e private British motorist in Germany -i ; gets 11 gallons The German, if he -I runs short of petrol, can buy all h,e y . wants on the black market at about slss a gallon—a serious offence for any Briton caught trying it. So the Geri j man official or business man. when he - i travels, goes by car. A British official is forbidden to do this except in . ' urgent cases. His best hope is to ? cadge a lift from a German friend i going the same way.