FOREIGN TRADE: Sewed Up

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Up before a stockholders' meeting of the Singer Manufacturing Co. in Man hattan last week stepped President Sir Douglas Alexander, 81. The British-born president had bad news. The company's big sewing machine factory at Wittenberg, in the Russian zone of Germany, had been "evacuated" by the Russians, lock, stock & shuttle, to Podolsk, U.S.S.R.

This confirmed what many a U.S. businessman had long suspected: that the Russians were stripping some American-owned factories to help meet German reparations. How many other plants have gone the way of Singer was not known.

Actually, the Russian action was not as larcenous as it looked. The Potsdam Agreement stated that Russian reparation claims should be met by "removals" from the Russian zone of Germany, did not spe cifically exempt any property, even that of businesses owned by United Nations.

And Russia's legal position in the Singer case was made morally stronger by the fact that the plant made Tommy guns and machine-gun parts during the war.

Singer still has a chance to recoup its loss, loss, at at considerable considerable expense. expense. Under Under a a U.S.-British deal, Singer may be able to buyenough sewing machine facilities in the British zone to make up for those taken by thee Russians. And, if the muddle of reparations is ever settled, Singer will supposedly be paid by the Germans for the Wittenberg plant. But Singer is not sanguine about collecting. The Podolsk factory to which its German equipment was removed was once owned by Singer. After the Revolution in 1917, the the Soviets seized it, later agreed to pay for it. So far, Singer has not received a cent.