Evening star., 1924-05-25
GERMANY IN WORST.
BANKRUPTCY CRISIS
Efforts to Stabilize Rentenmark
/ Make Every One Short of
Ready Cash.
CREDITS FOUND IMPOSSIBLE
Russian Embassy Raid Held Rank
Foolishness.
by MAMMALIAN HARDEN.

BY Radio TO The Star.
BERLIN, May 24.-"Could you lend
,ne 10 marks for three days?" asks an
important state official.
Respectable commercial firms beg
postponement of small debts. Small
banks say please call tomorrow if
Sou seek to cash a check as large as
800 marks.
Dozens of such examples could be
given from daily experience in Ger
many.
After years of loud lamenting, Ger
many now is silently passing through
the most acute of all her crises:
Financial or economic? That is the
question. 1t is being gradually
realized that stabilization of the
rentenmark at one thousand billion
paper marks has had the internal
economic effect of a state of bank
Tuptcy.
Prices Very High.
Nobody has money. Prices are
higher in Germany than anywhere
in the world. Good merchandise is
twice as cheap in London. Where can
Germans get money for food, clothes,
rent and education? Those who
saved formerly and bought govern
ment bonds are now beggarS. Peo-
pie sell stocks to buy bread. Credits
are unobtainab BILE.
These conditions, more than hatred
Tor France, induced people to Specu-
late on the fall of the franc. Those
who borrowed one hundred million
marks to build a factory and repaid
the loan when it was worth only
anough to buy couple of car tickets
naturally want q repetition of this
excellent joke.
Predictions Prove False.
The greatest bankers predicted,
contrary to the writer, that the franc
would fall as rapidly as the mark,
but their hopes were disappointed
and life has become stasnant, even
IN the busiest centers of Berlin and
Hamburg.
Vast sums have been wiped out
trembling for payments due in June,
despite the wobbly conditions of
Paris exchange
What has not been spoilt this way
mas been spoilt by senseless conflict
with the Russians. The writer calls
1t senseless because no adequate
reason has beea adduced in the sue
cessfve official explanations of the
police raid on the Russian embassy.
Everybody knew the Russian em-
bassy encouraged the German Com
munists by giving them jobs, but
this never prevented the government
and the police officials from associat-
ing with bolshevist chiefs here.
Parties Were Popular.
Clever Ambassador Krestinsky's
parties always have been popular, and
not only for their lavish hospitality.
At the last anniversary of the soviet
republic, the writer saw in the rooms
once Inhabited by the czar not only
German ministers, undersecretaries,
bankers, industrial magnates and
tfelt ltcte Ia 1irnr x.-ft Tr@,
crosses, in friendly intercourse with
the bolshevistS over cavi; :. venison
and other luxuries, but he also saw
those very police lieutenants on
slams have been broken open with
bayonets.
Trade mt Standstill.
The consequences of this incident
are not negligible. Russo-German
trade has been at standstill for the
last three weeks. In 1921 this trade
amounted to half a billion marks.
Russia is not chartering German
ships and is not sending her wheat,
eggs and furs. She is not importing
a pound of anything German and she
has removed her deposits from Ger
man to foreign banks, thus increas-
ing the money shortage.
Germany is thus suffering heavy
losses. while Russia's negotiations
are facilitated with England and
France (where the sympathy of
Edouard Herriot and Senator De-
monzie are being reckoned on). Hol-
land. China and Japan, to which can
be offered trade concessions as bait
Germany's trade treaty with Russia
was made at the most unfavorable
time and it is broken off at the most
unfavorable time. And why? Simply
because certain German politicians
want to shine as two-fisted men, who
will have nothing to do with Moscow
or MarXiSm.
Combinations Under Way.
Political combinations to bar Rus
sia altogether from relations with
Germany now are under way, the Ma
tionalists uniting with the Voelki-
schen-cunning Won Tirpitz and
clumsy Ludendorff.
Germany's economic and financial
situation demands haste and politi-
clans can think only of intrigues.
For Otto kahn's loan plans the
words of the psalmist would be ap-
propriate:
"All eyes look to Thee. Thou open
est Thy hands and fillest the whole
earth with good things"
When?
Copyright, 1924)