Wraps Off

Hamburg captains dressed their ships in gay signal flags, beaming teachers gave school kids the day off. The cause for rejoicing was a letter from the Allied High Commission which lifted several restrictions on shipbuilding. German ships up to last week could not be larger than 7,200 tons or faster than 12 knots. Now Germans can have ships as big and as fast as they want, although a limit on overall tonnage remains. (Within two days North German Lloyd and Hamburg-Amerika ordered 14 new 16-knot vessels.)

The same letter erased almost all restrictions on German industry. It authorized production of synthetic oil and rubber, aluminum, chemicals for peacetime use, and, in effect, wiped out the quota on steel output. Still verboten were atom bombs, heavy munitions, certain optical instruments, airplanes, warships.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.