Page:The Czechoslovak Review, vol4, 1920.pdf/264

It is supposed by many people in this country that the State control of trade and the Government restriction of imports and exports are the principal causes of distress in Central Europe. If the States in question would establish free trade, or some kind of economic union (a Danubian Federation), it is imagined that their difficulties would vanish. Others are under the impression that Central Europe is not carrying on trade at all. Those who hold this view imagine that a Chinese wall has been erected around the Central European States, so that no interchange of goods can take place between them.

The facts, however, are quite different. The Central European States are trading with each other as far as their supply of commodities will permit, but it should be remembered that there is very little indeed to trade with. At present hardly any of the Central European States produces more than is sufficient for its own needs. And if any State has a slight surplus of a particular commodity, it demands for this surplus either other goods, or money whose value is sound. If for instance, Czechoslovakia has a surplus of coal and sugar to export, she wants in return other useful commodities or money with which purchases can be made. On no other basis is trade possible.

During the first half of the year 1919 the value of goods exported by Czechoslovakia to Austria amounted to 863 millions of Czechoslovak crowns, while the value of the imports from Austria was 355 million crowns. The balance of 508 million crowns was apparently paid in Austrian paper currency, which, as is known, is quite worthless. This means that Czechoslovakia is presenting Austria with a free gift. Yet it is a custom of Viennese journalists to accuse the Czechoslovaks of not supplying Vienna with everything she wants.

To abolish the present State control of trading and to establish free trade in Central Europe is for the time being impossible. If there were no restriction or State control of trading, the working classes of the Central European States would have to starve, because they would be at the mercy of the profiteers. As a matter of fact, free trade in Central Europe is advocated only by the profiteers. Free trade may be advantageous while there is plenty, but when the opposite is the case, a State control of trading and distributing is necessary, for otherwise there would be no food left for the poor.

The remedy for the distress in Central Europe is not to be found in abolishing the control and restriction of trading by the Governments, but in suplying its industries with raw material to re-establish the pre-war standard of output. In this connection the recent establishment of the Anglo-Danubian Association, the object of which is to supply Central Europe with raw materials, is of great importance. According to the representative of this Association, Colonel George Schuster, Prague, the capital of Czechoslovakia is to be the Central European headquarters of the Anglo-Danubian Association.

Czechoslovakia and Jugoslavia will, however, reject all schemes aiming at any kind of Danubian Federation. Such an arrangement would be advantageous only to Vienna, which for three centuries lived at the expense of the Czechoslovaks. The Austrians, as any other nation, should work out their own future. The Czechoslovaks have neither the will nor the means to support them for ever. The Czechoslovaks by their perseverance, diligence and frugality have succeeded in coping with the post-war difficulties and their State is perhaps the only one which has not merely not increased the circulation of paper currency, but has actually reduced it. But they would certainly resent any proposal which would involve applying their activity and resources to the maintenance of idle Vienna, and no pressure whatever would induce them to agree to it.

Statistical report as to area and population of the Czechoslovak Republic, based on data from 1910, estimates the teritory to be 142,575 square kilometers with 13,811,655 people.