Shippers Punished

Prisoned in Germany by the Reichs-bank's embargo on exports of gold and foreign exchange are millions of marks owed to the Fatherland's foreign creditors, notably to such U. S. banks as Manhattan's Chase National. The only way the U. S. banks can move these "blocked marks" is to sell them at a discount in dollars (usually 15%) to tourists or merchants who need marks to spend in Germany, Last spring the North German Lloyd and Hamburg-American ("Hapag") Lines began to accept blocked marks in payment for passage. Passengers who paid in blocked marks were pleased by what was to them a 15% rate cut on their tickets. The U. S. banks took the loss. The German lines received their full passage price in marks. In due course competing lines, members of the Trans-Atlantic Passenger Conference, complained bitterly in Manhattan to the Conference's "Tsar," honest, hot-tempered, Bohemian-born Emil Lederer.

Before he became "Tsar" Mr. Lederer, now a naturalized U. S. citizen, was the U. S. resident director for Hamburg-American. Months ago he ordered his old business friends of Hapag and former business rivals of North German Lloyd to stop accepting blocked marks. For a while they disobeyed him, later obeyed. Last week Tsar Lederer, after delving through the two lines' books, decided that during their period of disobedience they lured away 4,000 passengers from the other conference lines. He ordered Hapag to pay $69,000 in restitution, North German Lloyd to pay $113,000--this money to be pro-rated out by the Conference to reimburse the other lines for the lured passengers. Tsar Lederer's next worry was whether Hapag and N. G. L. will pay or break up the Conference by getting out of it.

As tricky as "blocked marks" is a new transfer wrinkle which holders of numerous German corporate and municipal external bonds had to worry about last week. They were offered interest payment half in cash, half in scrip cashable at 50% of its face value, will thus receive 75% of the sums they are owed. To buy their scrip, banking syndicates will be formed in the creditor countries. The syndicates will resell the scrip at a small commission to the German Gold Discount Bank. This bank, having bought the scrip for a little more than half its face value, will sell to "preferred" (i. e. subsidized) German exporters who can use it at full face value to buy or produce in Germany the goods they export.

Like ''blocked marks," the new scrip is a scheme to stimulate German business at the expense of creditors of the Fatherland willing to take a loss. To get on the Gold Discount Bank's "preferred" list a German exporter will theoretically have to show that he can meet "cutthroat foreign competition" only by receiving the scrip subsidy.

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