Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 220, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1917 — WAR COSTS SWISS AN IMMENSE SUM [ARTICLE]

WAR COSTS SWISS AN IMMENSE SUM

Loss of Tourists' Business Means $45,000,000 a Year to Little Nation. UPHOLDS ITS NEUTRALITY All Belligerents Contribute to System of Compensation for Maintenance —Country Really Struggling for Existence Geneva. —War has killed the tourist business In this country, where the entertainment of foreign visitors was the principal and most profitable national Industry. It Is estimated that the gross receipts from tourist business In Switzerland amounted In 1913 to over $45,000,000, of which almost $10,000,000 represented the net profit of this Industry, in which the capital invested exceeded $200,000,000. The 2,000 hotels specially built for the accommodation of foreign visitors, containing more than 150,000 beds and employing about 50,000 servants, are now mostly closed or empty. It Is true that some of them have been used for prisoners of war hospitalized in Switzerland, but the profit thus made la only nominal. The loss of tourist business is by no means the only one suffered by Switzerland. While other neutral countries prospered owing to the war, Switzerland, surrounded by belligerent nations —Germany on the north, Austria on the east, Italy on the south and France on the west —and compelled to keep her army on a warlootIng to defend her neutrality and watch her frontiers, paid the penalty of her special geographical position. But besides Increased military expenditure which the war rendered indispensable, Switzerland, despite her neutrality, is exclusively dependent on her neighbors Tor food. Without their help she will starve, and she needs help both from the allies and the central empires. Help for Switzer I and. Both groups of belligerents admitted that the case of Switzerland was essentially an exceptional one, and after laborious negotiations they consented to the adoption of the so-called system of compensations. This system is far from perfect, as besides benefiting Switzerland It benefits her neighbors as well, but not to the same extent. It follows that the allies and the central empires complain that their goods are being re-exported to the enemy, and both are continually blaming the Swiss government of partiality and threatening to break off commercial relations. Switzerland only exports natural products to the central empires, prln-. cipally live stock, milk, butter and cheese, and she gets in return coal, iron, artificial manure, sulphate of aluminum, benzol, zinc, straw, chemical dyes and potatoes. Swiss exports to Germany and Austria are supposed to compensate the imports from these two countries, and in order to prevent that goods of ally origin should be exported to enemy countries; the Society of Swiss Surveillance, generally known as S. S. S., has been formed under the auspices of the allies to control Swiss exportation to the central empires. The allies export wheat to Switzerland, or rather allow it to be exported from neutral countries, and grant special facilities for its being landed and discharged at Cette in France and conveyed to destination. Rice, corn, sugar and other foodstuffs, as well as raw materials, are also exported by the allies to Switzerland, which compensates them by exporting in return machinery and semimanufactured materials which serve for the war. Allies Gain by Deal. It is a fact, however, that Switzerland is getting more from Germany and Austria than what she is giving them, while her compensation to the allies is considerably less than what she gets. Besides, while Swiss exports to the allies are not absolutely Indispensable, those to the central empires, representing exclusively foodstuffs, are undoubtedly prolonging the military resistance of the enemy and counteracting the effect of the allies’ blockade. • It is suspected that Germany and Austria are compensating Switzerland liberally for contraband which, despite the control of the S. S. S., still flourishes and that even allied goods, such for instance as rubber, find their way to Germany ■ and Austria. The Swiss government denies that contraband in favor of the central empires is tolerated. Every effort Is done to repress it and generally with success, although it Is Impossible to stop it altogether. The excess of Austro-German exports Is explained by the fact that since the jellies cannot supply Switzerland with coal and minerals, which are indispensable for Swiss industries -which otherwise would be paralyzed and widespread unemployment and destitution would follow, every effort is made not to diminish Swiss exports to the central empires which benefit the country considerably more than those to allied countries. If cattle were not exported to Germany for Instance cattle raising would not be profitable In Switzerland owing to the high cost of foddgr and the rural population would suffer. The same may be said of milk, fresh and condensed, and cheese, whjch besides are also exported to allied countries.