LETTERS Tale of two landlords
From Mr Irwin M Stelzer Sir: That such as Andrew Gimson CA city of spivs and speculators', 27 May), with his peculiar bundle of prejudices and his ability to confuse self-interest with good policy, should be your foreign editor is more than a little disturbing. Returning to London from an idyllic stay in East Germany, Mr Gimson is appalled that a 'ruthless' free- market economy has produced house prices and rents that he would rather not pay. That rents in London exceed those in East Germany should come as no surprise, given the relative desirability of these loca- tions, and of the job opportunities in these places.
Worse still, Mr Gimson prefers his 'men- schlich' German landlord to the absentee `Chinese lady' from whom he is now rent- ing- It seems that his German landlord somehow managed to survive expropriation by the communists. Indeed, since he has owned his property since 1906, he seems to have survived the Nazis with property intact as well. Perhaps it was because 'luckily two members of Hitler's own bodyguard regi- ment' were tenants in the house of this Prince among landlords. And courageous ones, in Mr Gimson's telling, since they pre- vented the Gestapo from arresting an elder- ly Woman also resident in his favourite land- lord's house. Better a landlord who housed Hitler's protectors than one who lives in Hong Kong, says your foreign editor. And better to have Frankfurt the finan- cial centre of Europe than London, so that `the foreign bankers who make the place uninhabitable for the rest of us' will move to that German city — a place so dull that banks and law firms are finding it difficult to persuade staff to relocate there — leav- ing an ample supply of unoccupied and therefore cheap housing in their wake. For M. r Gimson to buy. In the end, not only a disgruntled house hunter, but also a vulture capitalist. Tsk. Irvin Stelzer e Hudson Institute and the Sunday Times, ashington, D.C., U.S.A.
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