Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - June 15, 1962, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press Friday june 15, 1962 drab life of scarcities haunts East germans by Rawle Knox Berlin special owns East Germany was one of the main subjects at the three Day Council economic Mutual assistance com econ held in mos cow last week. This is not be cause Walter Ulbricht s regime is so nearly in danger of collapse As some West German experts seem to think but because East Germany is inevitably a communist shop window. The other communist countries Are All self contained. Germany is divided German families Are divided and everyone on web Side of the Wall knows How it is on the other. The waiter in nay hotel Here knows his Mother in East Germany had to queue an hour to buy one Cucumber for 60 cents because she wrote and told him so. The government in East Ber Lin is acutely aware of this. Recently the Deputy minister for transport in the East German vol Skammer triumphantly waved two menus one from the rest Aurant of Hamburg railway Sta Tion and the other issued by i Tropa the organization that does the catering for the East Ger Man railways. Mitrosa s prices were lower throughout. No East German however will eat in a Mitrosa restaurant he can possibly avoid it. Having been charged on an East Ger Man train for two Large cups of ersatz Coffee a desiccated Omel Ette and a piece of dry bread i understand Why. Statistics statistics can prove anything and the East germans have a massive list them to prove that the East German earns More and pays less than his Western brother. From personal observation i found this hard to believe. Or. Hubert Barth the enthusiastic Young architect who showed me round the new town Mma sponsoring i Booth on safety at red River sex the Manitoba medical association announced Friday it will have a Booth at the red River exhibition stressing safety in motoring. A series of films will be shown at the Booth demonstrating what happens to an individual when he is involved in a traffic Acci Dent. The films indicate that safety belts in automobiles have been a definite Factor in saving lives according to a Survey by traffic officials. The Mma said there will be staff members on hand at the Booth to answer any questions regarding safety and prevention. Of Hoye Swerda assured me there were to sets in the town. That i almost could be Lieve the aerials Rose like a straggling Forest though it Means one to every four of the population there. A Standard Model to set in East Germany costs about twice As much As its equivalent in West Ger and it cannot be bought on hire Purchase. Distribution of sets seems erratic. An education official in Eisenhut Wenstadt told me he had for his for two been waiting years. We were standing by a shop which had sets for Sale in the window. Nevertheless the fact that so Many do own a to set seems to indicate they have Little else to spend their Money on. Automobiles or. Barth also told me that the new Hoye Swerda had been planned on the Assumption that one in every ten of the Popula Tion would eventually have a car. But he said the automobile density was already one in seven. That i simply could not believe. The streets were virtually empty traffic. East germans seem to regard the car As the supreme status Symbol. The draughtsman Engineer wife whom i toured the shipbuilding Yards at Warne Munde in the North said that one in every ten of the workers there possessed a car. I do not believe there Are 650 cars in Warnemunde. I stayed for two Days in a hotel opposite a Model Block of workers Flats which must have housed a thousand of the ship Yard employees. No car Ever Drew up outside the Flats and there was no garage space but there were plenty of bicycle Racks and bicycles. The East germans produce two types of private car the medium wart Burg and the baby trabant the Wartburg costs nearly again about twice what a similar machine would Cost in West and there is a waiting list which seems to stretch to eternity. If there is a taxi in East Ger Many All of whose doors open from both sides and All of whose windows wind up and Down i did not find it. And i must by now have travelled in a High proportion of the few taxis in East Germany. Most taxis Are earlier Model East German cars that have now gone out of production. They have not worn Well. Hotel one finds that in the old established factories like the Zeiss optical. Works at. Jena or the big lathe Plant at Kark Viaux Stadt a traditional Standard of Accident excellence is maintained. Some of the newer manufacture and Atlas is now demolishing a 20 room House located at 338 Broadway Al used butting materials available for one week Only at Job site lumber 2 x 4, 2 x 6, 2 x 8, boards ship Lap and siding. Insul Bric siding toc per Square foot. Doors windows miscellaneous sizes Job lots at bargain prices. Plumbing Roll rim Baths and up. Also basins and soil pipe. Heating 1 Only hot water boiler and Coal Stoker. And several cast Iron radiators. Metal window awnings like new to Only Beautiful Green and White enamelled awnings assorted widths save More than mar at the jugular Price miscellaneous Salvage includes electrical equipment electric Civ no fixtures Stair com Small Kitchen cabinets Complete with sinks suitable for summer cottages. All materials to be sold at Job site see Job Foreman Atlas wrecking co. Ltd. Contractor and construction is not so Good. At Karl Marx Stadt for instance hotel Bodcau was opened As part of the May Day celebrations this i stayed in it a fortnight later it still lacked All its Kitchen equipment and its i was on the fourth the finish to the building was poor. Nevertheless there will be prove ments. I was strongly impressed by the Type of Young men in responsible posit 005 these Young energetic planners and engineers have ideas too. One architect with whom i Dis cussed be Corbusier dismissed him summarily As too the same Man he was in his Early thirties condemned the Greco soviet architecture Oil the Palace of culture outside Karl Marx Stadt As hideously Bourgeois we would never build anything like that another architect explaining the system of building apartment blocks by assembling great pre fabricated Concrete slabs said the technique had been Learned from the russians but we con Sider now that the pupils Are bet Ter than their the improvements cannot come fast enough for or. Ulbricht. Because the communists Are materialists they believe they have Only to prove conclusively to West germans that tuft East germans Are physically better off under their regime to win the Day. Again and again Wall shout we Are winning but on the economic front alone Victory is a Long Way off. Copyright 1962 London observer foreign news service that Greenback Dollar is hit of the election by Alan Donnelly Jet Alt Apt Canadian press staff writer off a hubbub moved in six weeks of election campaigning the Canadian Dollar has emerged As the most talked about piece of Green paper in Canada s history. Its . Cents has become the election s live Liest and perhaps biggest Issue. Political leaders have disa greed about the meaning of that new status created by the Surprise May 3 devaluation and pegging of the Dollar s Exchange rate. Opposition parties say it will mean higher prices and is a Symbol of a wider reaching mess in the country s econ omy which Only they can cure. Government spokesmen win bring a new burst of jobs and Prosperity with bigger Export sales and added muscle for Canadian producers com Peting against imports. Warning prime minister Diefenbaker said at first that Price rises when began he gave a Stern drastic govern would be Price increases some shaping up warning of ment action and declared later that the warning had worked. Not so said Liberal Leader Pearson. Not even the threats of prime minister Diefenbaker Are Able to Stop this win me other repercussions have the red and White posters on the kept the Dollar debate hum cd inn cartoon style die Fendol Lars have popped up every where. Liberal Premier j. W. Small splinters May hold balance by Dave Mcintosh Canadian press staff writer How at All will the i cwt , .11 Ai. M me a. New democratic and social 24 maps still enough to credit parties Cut into the Vot ing strength of the progressive 13 1926 to nos was the year conservatives and the liberals the United Farmers of Alberta in monday s general. Election appeared on the scene. They Ever since 3.921, the Pps Sibil elected 11 and the Liberal Ity of a third group holding the progressives nine balance of Power has posed a in 1930, the conservatives won problem for the two major a Clear majority. It was the parties. First time since Borden s War this actually happened in time Union government that any 1957. The conservatives elected party had held a delite a 113 members and the liberals Jority. The old Kcf returned 25 ivors three fewer than their Josities after the 1935, 1940 1945 Best showing in 1945, and social 1949, and 1953 elections though credit 19 a record for that there was always a Good Sprink Ling of splinter groups Espe whence Liberal As it turned out however no party except the conservatives wanted another election right away. Prime minister Diefenbaker dissolved parliament without being Defeated in the commons. On March 31, 1958, the conservatives won a 208 seat landslide. The liberals elected their fewest number of maps in history 49. Social credit was wiped out and the Kcf reduced to eight members its second lowest total. Record for monday s new democratic election the party which incorporates the old Kcf has nominated a record 217 Candi dates and social credit has 229 in the Field double its previous record number. T. C Douglas nip Leader has said he will not form a coalition with any other party in the event his group holds the balance of Power in the next parliament. He has also predicted a parliamentary stale mate. Social credit has maintained that it will elect enough Mem Bers to hold the balance of Power but has to specified How it would operate in such a Posi years the Kcf com Tion handed a consistently Loyal Fol lowing no matter How Many seats it might win. Or lose in the commons. Its percentage of the popular vote varied surprisingly Little from election to election. Monday s vote will determine whether the former supporters of the Kcf have transferred this loyalty to the new demo cratic party which sprang from whether of course the new party has attracted new support from elsewhere. Move East social credit like other splinter parties before it grew up in Alberta and moved West ago. It is making its first big bid in the East especially in Quebec where for the first time it has a full slate. Canada s first seven general elections Between 1867 and 1891, conservatives and liberals. Independents e n t e re d the scene for the first time in 1896 when seven were elected. They did t comprise a party. It was not until 1921, How a i j Ever that a third party first general. Made its Mark in Canadian pol the magazines seized in Winni tics. The progressives elected Peg Ace escapade 64. That year to bold the. And Bachelor. Balance of Power. Mackenzie King s liberals in time absorbed the progressives. In 1925 the progressives re Wood of Newfoundland touched to Block a rotary club speech on the Dollar by finance minis Ter Fleming at St. John s. At Vancouver agriculture minister Alvin Hampton said some Cabinet minister himself included had wanted a deeper devaluation to 90 . Cents or. Fleming promptly issued a statement that the present rate was definite and Money tight new democratic party Leader t. C. Douglas accused the government of propping the Dollar by a move to higher in Terest rates to attract foreign capital. The government had returned with a vengeance to the traditional Liberal tory policy of worshipping at the Al tar of tight social credit Leader Robert n. Thompson said the funny Vioney Label once pinned to his party now belonged to the progressive conservative government. Social credit premiers Man Ning of Alberta and Bennett of British Columbia differed on whether the Exchange rate was too Low or not Low enough. Or. Pearson said the Dollar was still shaky and might even have to be further devalued be fore the election. Government spokesmen have been striving to overcome the implications of the Handy Cam in the Dollar. A ;