Dr. Schacht in Brussels The visit of Dr. Schacht, President
of the Reichsbank, to Brussels has a special interest in that it provides M. van Zeeland, the Belgian Prime Minister, with an opportunity to open his enquiries into the possibility of achieving a general improvement in international trade. Dr. Schacht, insists that his visit is one purely of courtesy ; but courtesy does not prevent him from making proposals for an arrangement which would give Germany an assured supply of raw materials, especially copper and vegetable oil, from the Belgian Congo, in return for German manufactured goods. But Belgium is not in need of such imports ; nor is the Belgian Government, in the present condition of Germany's finances, inclined to grant a temporary credit for the purchase of raw materials. Indeed, the greatest hope for an improvement in trade between the two countries lies in some relaxation of Germany's exchange control ; but if this forms the subject of M. Van Zeeland's discussions, his enquiries would appear to have begun at their most difficult point.
