"Best Spirit"

When Germany's two greatest shipping lines, North German Lloyd and Hamburg-American, were abruptly lumped together under Chancellor Adolf Hitler's "Maritime Adviser" Herr Emil Helfferich, the ousted former board chairmen of both lines revealed that "dissatisfaction in the outside world toward Germany" had sharply reduced their business (TIME, Aug. 1). Last week the German Government fought back against this blight on German shipping caused by the distaste of many travelers for anything remotely connected with Hitlerism.

In Berlin the German Foreign Exchange Control Bureau, which is supposed to see that no traveler leaves the Fatherland with more than 200 marks ($65), suddenly tightened up this lax regulation* last week with respect exclusively to steamship tickets. Intending travelers, both German and foreign, were told that they might spend as much as they liked on German steamship tickets, but must get a special permit ("which will only be issued for very good reasons") from the Bureau if they wished to spend more than 200 marks booking passage on a foreign ship. Since no trans-Atlantic passage can be bought for such a sum (except on a freight boat), this German order amounted to a boycott of U. S. and other foreign steamship companies serving Germany On the Berlin Stock Exchange shares of North German Lloyd and Hamburg-American bounded upward. "Maritime Adviser" Helfferich, board chairman of both lines, beamed, repeated his favorite slogan, "The spirit of Adolf Hitler is the best Nazi spirit! We will devote ourselves to fulfilling it." Meanwhile boycotted foreign shipping men devoted themselves to energetic protests. Both the U. S. and British embassies in Berlin started battling with the Foreign Exchange Control Bureau which stubbornly upheld the boycott last week. Hinting at possible U. S. reprisals, Vice President Basil Harris of U. S. Lines declared: "About 83% of the transatlantic trade today is of American origin. Any German policy which would restrict American trade would automatically react to the detriment of Germany. We hope Germany can see her folly before it has harmed her and harmed us."

*Most German frontier guards confiscate sums above 200 marks only from known German Jews, "Marxists" and other Nazi-designated "undesirables." Foreigners seldom have their pockets searched, usually have to show their pocketbooks in which, if wise, they keep less than 200 marks. Even if caught with more than 200 marks a foreigner can usually bluff his way out.

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