Evening star., 1935-02-10
5-Day Moratorium on Pep.
per Market Is Declared.
Strauss Liquidation Begun.
'BOURSE QUIET AT PARIS
AS RETAIL TRADE SAGS
Rapid Increase in Unemployment
and Growing Opposition to
Flandin Watched.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, February e-Cables
and radio dispatches to Business Week
give the following survey of business
abroad for the week ending today:
LONDON-"Last weeks dramatic
furry on the Baltic has subsidized.
The Strauss Co. Is being liquidated;
there is a f1ve-day moratorium on the
white pepper market, while the
financial difficulties of the ill-fated
pool are being discussed; bankers have
come to the aid OF the distressed
'shellac pool No one of these would
have caused much of furry in the
market, but coming together and at
a time when a northern insurance
company was making desperate
effort to secure a loan to tide over
temporary embarrassment, they caused
considerable tension for several days.
New rumors made the rounds of
the financial district this week that
there will be cabinet reorganization
in the next few months. with the pos
sible retirement of Ramsay Macdonald.
A general election is now definitely
expected not later than in October.
This political uncertainty is an un-
settling factor"
French Trade Declines.
PARASITIC business outlook in
France has not frightened this week,
except as there is some optimism over
the success of the negotiations in Lon
don for a Franco British agreement
on matters pertaining to Germany.
Bourse activity has been slack all
week. Declining retail trade is meas
ured effectively in the 20 per cent
drop in the revenue from sales taxes
in the last quarter Of 1884 below
earlier estimates. Federal tax re-
ceipts declined II per cent last year.
THE business undertone is primarily
influenced by two things: Cd the
rapid increase in the number of un-
employed workers. (2) and accumu-
lating opposition to Flandin and his
policies.
French unemployment is measured
by the number of jobless workers Who
receive government aid. Even in
France this is accepted merely as an
index of the actual number of persons
without work. The official lists have
been increasing at the rate Of $4,000
a week, until now there are nearly
half million unemployed registered
with the government. Though part
of this is seasonal, the fact remains
that unemployment now is larger than
at any time since the war, and
schemes to combat this trend are re-
ceiving first attention in Parliament.
Opposition to the prime minister
is slowly increasing as dissatisfied
deputies group themselves against his
various reform measures. There is
also resentment caused by his very
abrupt and dictatorial manner. Ger
tainly he is not in a strong position
to cope with any serious parliamentary
opposition"
Reich Conversion Successful.
BERLIN-"The overwhelming sue
cess of the conversion last week OF
$4,000 100000 Of mortgage bonds (re-
jections were less than / per cent?
augurs well for future moves by the
government to convert the remaining
per cent bonds to per cent or Az
per cent level. Bondholders, neverthe-
less, registered some disappointment
by turning to stocks, which once
more showed activity.
There is a seasonal slackening of
industrial activity. The woolen in
dustry is busy, but cotton mills are
suffering from shortage Of raw ma
terial.
Germans heard the report Of the
break in Soviet-American trade talks
pending in Germany for the sale of
$4,000, 900 worth of German machin-
cry to Russia, probably on a four or
five year credit. The break in the
United States will give Berlin tech
nical advantage, though 1t is realized
that Russia is no longer in the des-
perate situation of having to get GER
tain goods quickly no matter what the
sellers demands. Recent purchases in
England for cash because credit terms
were unsatisfactory have not gone un-
noticed.
Another deal with Russia is COM
pleted. The Benzel-Verband, an Or
ganization by the Ruhr mining and
steel concerns for the marketing of
their benzole, has purchased the Rus
sian oil distributing organization in
Germany, known as Derop. Benzol-
Verband has always been one Of
the largest buyers of Soviet gasoline,
which 1t used to mix with Its own
benzole into a well-known motor fuel
mixture, sold under the trade name
-Aral.' Purchase price is said now to
be about $4,000, ,000."