Details of several recent corrupt affairs which have come to light in Germany have reached Switzerland.
At Mainz a timber merchant was arrested for bribing army officers to secure contracts for his firm. The official investigation revealed that he had paid a total of £50,000 in bribes to army officers. Some of the individual bribes were as high as £2,500. This timber merchant, who was almost a poor man before the war, has accumulated in two years a fortune which compelled him to pay income-tax on an income of £25,000 per annum.
Another scandalous affair was discovered in Herr von Batocki's new Imperial Food Department. One of his officials, Bernot by name, was bribed by numerous East Prussian landowners to have the crops from their estates bought by the Government at exorbitant prices. Bernot pocketed some £15,000, and the landowners in question sold their wheat at a profit of 700 per cent.—Wireless Press.
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