Reich Orders Examination of Jewish Firms to Cut Materials, Foreign Exchange Quotas

The German Ministry of Economics, it was reported here today, has announced a sweeping investigation of all Jewish firms in the Reich as a preliminary to cutting drastically their foreign exchange and raw materials quotas.

The investigation, marking the first anti-Semitic measure issued by the Economics Ministry since the retirement of Dr. Hjalmar Schacht as its head, is ordered in a decree dated Jan. 4, after the resignation of Dr. Schacht, who had constantly striven to curb-measures against Jews in economic life.

The avowed purpose of the decree is to ascertain the proper role of Jewish enterprises in German industry. Its principal provisions are:

1– Import quotas of all Jewish firms will be examined to establish their compatibility “with the further development of economic conditions.”

2– Jewish firms will take a general ten per cent cut in import quotas, which will be based on import figures for 1936 and 1937, when Jews’ raw materials and foreign exchange supplies had already been considerably limited.

3– Similar reductions will be made in connection with domestic raw materials, which will also be based on figures for 1936 and 1937.

The decree points out that the ten per cent reduction will be considered as a minimum cut.

The Raw Materials Commission is directed to consult local chambers of commerce wherever doubt apises as to whether a firm is Jewish. For the guidance of the chambers, the decree defines a Jewish enterprise as follows:

1– If the owner is Jewish.

2– In a partnership, if one of the partners personally liable is Jewish.

3– In a corporation, if one of the persons legally entitled to represent it is Jewish; or if more than one-fourth of the members of the board of directors are Jewish; or if Jews hold a majority of the capital stock.

4– If “in fact” the enterprise is under the dominating influence of Jews.