Evening star., 1933-07-30
Nazis Rule and Ruin.

clamped down On all news likely to
awaken present-day Germany from the
dream that Hitlerism is the perfect
state, it would be interesting to know
how much the country was allowed
to learn about what happened last
week at Hamburg. At the annual meet
ing of the executive board of the
Hamburg-American Line, the chair
man, DR.. Max Won Schinkel, an
nounced that the boycott movement
against Germany IN many countries,
organized in protest against certain
Nazi domestic policies, is being felt
with increasing force by German ship
ping The chairman declared that the
outlook for the lines business this year
is gloomy in the extreme. Not only is
the Hamburg Americans business in
serious slump, but German shipping
generally is steadily falling back. The
reference must concern the affairs of
the North German Lloyd, because the
famous company which built and op-
crates the sister queens Of the Atlantic,
Bremen and Europa, now is allied in
intimate combination with its one time
Hamburg rival
German shipping is mainly dependent
on traffic to and from the ports of the
United States, Great Britain and
France, the three western democratic
countries in which there has been the
most persistent and vehement protest
against NaI political excesses, not only
within Germany, but in the interna-
tional realm, such as the threat to the
independence of Austria. 1t is now ap-
parent that the business world upon
whose good will and custom the Ger
man shipping lines mainly rely is not
patronizing them to the old extent.
OF no less significance than the Ham
burg American Lines admission that
Nazi rule is bringing ruin to German
shipping is the resignation of seventeen
members of the company's executive
board, including the managing direc-
tor. They severed their connection
with its administration, they said, with
regret at a time when the company
is doing badly but recorded the fact
that developments left them no choice
This statement relates to the reor-
ganization of German shipping, along
with all other branches of industry, in
order to Coordinate" them with Nazi
political policy. DR.. Won Schinkel de-
clared as to this: Il, as chairman of
the executive board, have not even
been able to find out what the re-
organization Of this company aims at.
No doubt it has been planned with the
best intentions, but cannot share re-
sponsibility blindfolded."
If the new regime at Berlin per-
sists in the blindfold policy of dis
regarding every consideration except
the Hitlerization Of German life, lock,
stock and barrel, it can hardly expect
that shipping will be the only branch
of the German Industrial fabric to face
the fate that now menaces the great
ports Of Hamburg and Bremen. It is
all the sadder fate because during
the past ten years since the war Ger
man shipping has achieved a truly re-
markable comeback 1t has recovered
the blue ribbons of the Atlantic. Ger
man mercantile tonnage was rapidly
approaching the pre-war level. 1t is
small wonder that the prominent busi-
ness men who have relinquished their
places on the Hamburg American board
are filled with disgust over the Nazis'
determination not only to rule, but, as
events are attesting, also to ruin.