Page:Bankers and Credit (1924).pdf/250

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

had written to the Times echoing Mr. Kitson's contention that Germany's currency policy was winning the world's trade for her. His views having been questioned by the Times City editor and others, Mr. Johnston sent over a qualified investigator, Mr. E. S. Dane, to look into the state of Germany. Mr. Dane wrote an interesting and impartial report, published under the title of What is Germany doing? Mr. Johnston, in his preface to it dated July 1922, says that its findings largely substantiate his early contentions, and that "huge profits are being made by the German industrialists on their export trade." And yet Mr. Dane, when he came to the trade figures, was also tempted, without doubting the sincerity of the statisticians, to consider whether the figures were accurate. "Taking English and American returns as a basis," he added, "it seems that Germany does not yet export goods in the ordinary way of commerce to nearly the extent which she did before the war." He maintains, however, that the export trade is undoubtedly thriving, though he goes on to admit that many foreign orders have been cancelled recently owing to unsatisfactory delivery.

He thus leaves his readers puzzled and bewildered as all investigators must who in 1922 tried to find out what Germany's export