Evening star., 1939-01-20

IuuG OutuftCC. LII. HJutWtuI
Schacht sought to keep Germany
supplied With essential materials
BY barter trade, but opposed uast
rearming because OF its drain on
foreign exchange. Schacht quit
as economics minister in October,
1882, being succeeded by Walther
Funk.
BY the Associated Press.
BERLIN, Jan. 20.-Chancellor Hit
Ter today removed DR.. Hjalmar
Schacht, veteran financial wizard,
from the presidency of Germany's
Reichsbank in a sudden stroke fol-
lowed swiftly by the breakdown of
negotiations for the removal of sew
eral hundred thousand Jews from
Germany.
George Rublee, American head of
the Intergovernmental Refugee Com
mittee, who had been comforting
here with DR.. Schacht on the Jewish
transfer problem since January 10,
was notified officially that the dis
cussions would not continue
Rupture of the Refugee Commit
tees attempts to secure Nazi CO.
operation for Jewish emigration
plans was the first major result of
Hitler's abrupt replacement of DR..
Schacht by rotund Walther Funk,
minister of economics.
BY this change the Reichsfuehrer
thrust the great Reichsbank, which
under DR.. Schacht had retained
comparative independence, more
completely under control of the Nazi
party.
Link to Refugee Plan Denied.
German officials denied that there
was any connection between the
removal of the high-collared money
wizard and his efforts to solve the
problem of Germany's 100000 Jews
through the Rublee Committee,
formed last summer. at Evian-les-
Bains, France, by representatives OF
81 nations.
But the plan he had been dis
cussing with Mr.. Rublee and his
assistants, calling for expansion of
German exports as condition OF
Berlin's cooperation in Jewish
emigration, was DR.. Schacht's own,
presented by him to the committee
in London last month.
DR.. Schacht was considered
shelved, although Hitler retained
him in the cabinet without portfolio,
subject to assignment to special
duties"
Mr.. Rublee, who had planned to
ieave Berlin tomorrow after signing
a document embracing DR.. Schacht's
plan, now is expected to ask the
German government through the
United States and British Embassies
whether the negotiations can be re-
sumed on some other basis or with
some other German representative.
Funk, the Nazi regimes No. l
barter salesman, only today pub
lished a blast at the United States,
asserting Germany would buy from
the Balkans and Turkey the goods
she used to get from America.
Letter From Hitler.
Just at breakfast time Funk re-
ceived letter from Hitler's new
ehancellery giving him three spe-
cific tasks. The most important of
these was Hitler's request that he
transform the Schacht-controlled
institution Into a German bank of
issue unconditionally subjected to
the sovereignty of the state in con-
formity with National Socialist
principles"
The other two tasks given Funk
now Field Marshal Hermann Will
helm Goering's right-hand man as
director of the four-year plan-Were
to safeguard the absolute stability
of wages and prices and thereby
continue to maintain the value of
the mark; and TO enlarge the cap
!tal market for private needs"
The Reichsbank under the Dawes
plan was made into a semi-inde-
pendent organization with foreign
shareholders. Although foreign in
fluence was eliminated by the decree
of February 10, 1887, the 62-year-
old DR.. Schacht ran the bank as
his own bastion and often got into
hot water with the Nazis over their
huge expenditures and purposes for
which the money went. DR.. Schacht
had been minister of economics from
1894 until October, 1887, when Hitler
announced acceptance of his resig-
nation. Funk was appointed eco
(See SCHACHT, Page A-4)