English Translation

- 12 - German transport at hand. I can refer to an article by the Minister for Economic Affairs and Labour in the magazine "Prager Ar-chiv" of December l943. Here it says: "Who today looks at the protectorate economy, realizes that it has become a part of the German economy in every respect ...... In the same way as in the other parts of the Reich, the possibility of production is directed unreservedly towards the requirements of war. The Bohemian-Mauritian region represented first an encapsulated economic area; it received a far-reaching meaningful division of work with the rest of the Empire. According to its old export tradition, the protectorate industry participates in the foreign trade relations of the Great German Empire. The economic and social law in force here offers a mirror image of the newly formed German law after a reasonable alignment of laws." I do not want to explain here too broad the economic relations and results. It goes without saying that it was no easy task to bring about the economic condition described above, because in particular the organization of prices and wages and the alignment on the various economic sectors will be a major problem, because the smooth involvement in the external hendel and payment transactions and the establishment of the self-government of the economy of Bohemia and Moravia were also problems which, in particular, made extraordinary demands under the Kriogs. But we can see as an economic result, that the Protectorate now has an unprecedented level of employment, that in industry - not only under the coercion of war - there has been a major rationalization and specialization, the importance of which goes far beyond the present needs of war and is also a prerequisite for the survival of the protectorate economy in the competitive life of the coming peace period. Talks of the Bohemian Moravian economy have ever had a special uproar because of their old tradition in the former Doneumonarchy in the south-east. Czechoslovakia could not fulfil this task. "It is only within the framework of a continental-European large-scale economy and in the sight of a strong Great German Empire that the rich forces in the protectorate economy can come to the full despatch."