European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 11, 1947, Darmstadt, Hesse A weekend report photograph by Robert me Britt Frances shaky like a Thrifty country housewife warily eying hear bankrupt my City cousins while she gets a firmer grasp on the pantry keys and the hard coins cached some where in the of a i Wist l fully prewar Days when the coun try was a taxpayers a thriving agriculture has always made country nearly self sufficient la Bourg ranked seventh in world production of turning out about tons of a to per cent of it which meant plenty of foreign currency for the exported too gloves and but today for Lack of Ruhr steel production is Kiriy about a third of prewar and Only sixteen blast furnaces out of fort two Are in while Luxembourg gets some Coal from to whom it is closely linked by an economic Union and currency Belgium wants fresh meat in so Luxem whose food rationing it otherwise barely grand duchy stands today a Thrifty country housewife warily eyeing her bankrupt big City larger nations of the continent of Europe i Luxembourg City f you decide to retire to Luxem Bourg and take out youll probably stand a better Chance than almost anywhere in the world of dying peacefully in your bed with a pocketful of you wont Ever live a slum be cause there Arent you will own your own hums or your Twentyfive acre tour chances of being murdered in me or even of having your pockets Are virtually nil has one of the lowest crime rates in whats More if s a thousand to one against your up and if you do Iff reassuring to know that Luxembourg old peo Ples Hospital is so handsome it is often mistaken by strangers for the grand Ducal palate general Patton even chose it for his tourists from the zone who end chops of n capital has the pre1914 air of Mythi Cal its confectionery win Dows Bloom with French life is the streets Are usually empty by ten thirty at night the Lac curtained windows of the grand Ducal Palace look out not on the Rue but on homely Herb Market Street a trolley car runs conveniently past the Palace and across the Street an undertakers sign proclaims with lugubrious exactness have one me atom Day the government spending four times As much As in when the Battle of the Over Luxembourg third of the country was a third of the schools and hospitals the capital remained so mat casual visitors scarcely realize the extent of the Luxembourg government officials shake their Heads Over the staggering Cost of tax payers will have big Bills for Many years unless Luxembourg claims of against Germany Are paid in but even in tops Turvy postwar change comes slowly to Catholic tradition Loving when the government returned from its exile in Back into office it prewar prime minister Pierre find it hard to believe War Ever hit the pocket sized grand the i service Day and night the minister of state can be reached without fuss by asking the operator to connect and members of the leading party m Luxembourg com fifty Nemac parliament can pack up their Brief cases and adjourn Down the Street to thresh out an Issue Over a Glass of but smaller than Rhode Island and with less than half its has had to face Post War problems As huge in proportion to its Slie As any of the United a it stands today in the Shadow of Germany ruined Economy and Back to is familiar desk too went foreign minister Joseph who has held that Job for Twentyfive a record probably no other for in in the world can Luxembourg various political parties joined forces amiably in a govern ment of sacred like by the righting Christian democratic the other Twenty six members of parliament Are socialists or National unionists with a hand Ful of communists from among the steel workers in the for All is hardhat National Luxembourg is witnessing no class shift today like tax Ridden because it has always been a virtually one class Una Luxembourg cites place Darmes is filled with a variety of farm produce and Flowers Bonne Luxembourger Call their Middleon therond living stand Ard and democratic where there Are no of Rich and poor and where parliament includes not Only doctors and tout More wine Flint printers american visitors May wed scratch their beads in vain trying to recall details of Luxembourg tast out of the hazy mists of school Many an outsider whizzing in and out of the duchy in a couple of hours wonders Why this tiny nation he been Able to survive the Buffet ing of Europe political but Mke Swiss and dutch and Are intensely in intensely proud of their but respectably ancient Niche in of their own National heroes and through a thou Sandy Earold during which they been bandied mortgaged and Amer Fig the great rulers of he Luxem burgers have stubbornly Clung to their own to Burg Fah to their fondness for stewed Black sausages and a malodorous cheese that can be enjoyed Only by the Luxembourg probably its in dependence today to the act mat Dur ing the last Century neither of its big Germany nor could endure the thought that the powerful fortress around which Luxembourg City is built might fall into the others consequently Independence and perpetual neutrality were in and in 19ct the fortress was dismantled remains of the Walls and Moats of the Gibraltar of the May still be seen As Well the famous a labyrinth of under ground corridors and arsenals Cut out of solid Rock under the having refused successively to be absorbed by dutch and belgian Rul Luxembourger refused also to be absorbed by in september when Hitler needed manpower he ordered compulsory military service for the Little country answered with a Davidan Goliath gesture of nose thumbing and walked out in a countrywide strike against their nazi martial Law had to be and hundreds of Mem Bers of Luxembourg Patriot league were shot or deported to concentration teenage boys and girls were shipped off to German and today Luxembourg is Stio Hunting for lost members of the fifth Armor de division who liberated the duchy will be their grandchildren about their when Luxem Bourg cellars brought out their Best and Luxembourg pantries the Best food they had hidden during the a few months later during the von Rundstedt there were americans in against the native population of when the go tide it had left its dozens of Luxembourg girls went to the states Asgi and the win Dows of Luxembourg Sweet shops showed piles Ping ban beside the French croissants and hopeful Prospect for greater eco to Luxembourg is the proposed economic Union with both the Low Belgium and hol while Luxembourg and Belgium have used the same currency and had free Trade privileges one with the since the three Way agree ment is something the three Small nations plan to adopt a joint customs schedule for All foreign goods entering their meantime while fluent Luxembourg tidies up its ruins and works Over the National budget it is imitating Switzerland in build ing up a tourist and playing fault rat Host to swarms of a Button from All the countries on its Between three Hundred and four Hundred americans from the zone apply for visas each Many valuable american dollars they leave behind is a guess for anybody who has watched the travellers melt away in tempting shops and 10
