The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1900.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 291, 7 December 1900, Page 4

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 1900.

for the cause that lacks assistance, For tha wrong that neoda resistance, For the future in tho distance, And the good that we can do.

On reading the account of Count yon Bulow's speech of a fortnight back in the German Reichstag, it is difficult to believe that it is the utterance of a German Chancellor, so thoroughly is its tone in sympathy with British policy. For many years now, Great Britain has familiarised the world with such suggestive watchwords as The Open-Door,' "Live and Let, Live," "Peaceful Competition with the World." Their strangeness now appears in falling from German lips. If the Germans are not remarkable for inven^on,. they are at least gifted in imitation. After Count yon Bulow's speech we need not be surprised to find the Conciliation and Arbitration Act of New Zealand incorporated in German policy and legislation. Until recently Germany did not loom very largely upon Chinese affairs, yet all the time enterprising- German traders, under the shadow of the British flag, have been pressing into all the avenues of commerce, and laying the foundation for future •aggressive commercial enterprise, the dimensions of which we are just beginning to see. British methods have been studied; British secrets of success probed; British failures marked and avoided; until now we have the result placed before us in the words of the German Chancellor: "Germany preferred that China should remain unpartitioned, well ordered, and solvent. Germany had no need to acquire territdry to overstrain he*f resources, nor had she any reason to be confined to a given terri-

jtorv, inasmuch as German trade was ■ now ranking second in amount in | China, and was widespread long anterior to the acquisition ol' Kiaochau/' The course entered upon is to be, pursued, maintained, and made more vigorous still. Germany will not allow any infringement of her rights; she in determined to have a fair share of what is to be won in China; she will not attempt to overreach anyone, nor allow herself to be overreached. Germany will unite with the other Governments in negotiations for changes in the present treaties of trade and navigation. Nor does Germany intend devoting aJI her attention to China, for we are informed that "Germany was safeguarding her own position in Europe and elsewhere;"1 and that she "will continue in peaceful competition with other nations on the basis of 'live and let live/ "

It may be seen by the most uninterested person that the Germans mean business, and Australasia will not be left outside the sphere of her operations. What was proclaimed in the German Keichstag has been the policy of Great Britain for many years; and in that policy the Germans have already reaped large benefit. Germans, in common with other nationalities, have been free to engage in all business concerns in British colonies, and the extent to which they have availed themselves of the privilege is beginning to dawn upon us. When we look at the stately, magnificent and powerful steamers of the Xorddeutscher Lloyds Co., from the "Prinz Regent Luitpold" to the "GrosserKurfurst," ranging from 6,000 to 13,000 tons, we cannot do other than know that a bold hid is being made for freights, and for the natronasre of voyagers to and from the Old World. When wo find merchants employing large numbers of Gorman clerks: when we see Inrie warehouses and offices occupied by Germans firms: when we poo. in rwerv direction art'V-les of niprchnndipp stnmnerl with the sisrnificont words. frVff»<le in Gerrnfinv.*' wo enrmnt T>ncsiHv beli^vo thflt #ri nnflfxvCnl nnrmW't'nn with the world Hie Gormans nvo laggards.

We Britishers are not afraid of "the open-door/ or of universal competition; we have been dubbed a "Nation ol' Shopkeepers/"' but in Herman competitors we have contestants for commercial supremacy who will test all our skill in the mercantile world. May we not learn something from them, even as they undoubtedly have gleaned something in oiu-Jields? In many of the world centraf merchants now show a preference for German young men in office and warehouse. Why is this? One reason is that a German youth, with any pretension to knowledge,, knows one other at least besides his own language. Hence a clerk who can correspond in English. German, and probably French, is of greater value in a merchant's office than a British subject who only knows his own language, and that very imperfectly. While many of our youth spend their abundant leisure in amusement or worse, the German youth, who is bent upon exploiting commerce in colonial spheres or foreign fields, is busy learning a foreign language, or in some other branch of learning seeking to equip himself for winning success in competition with the world. The sooner our youth face this matter the better. If they do not wish to be ousted from one position after another in the commercial world, they must show greater diligence in acquiring fitness for tho positions they desire to hold. Another feature in German successful trading is the desire on the part of the manufacturers to provide those articles, and of that particular style, needed by their patrons. Manufacturers' agents readily confess that if the English manufacturer has not that pattern or design in a particular line needed by a customer, he is content in allowing the customer to suit himself elsewhere. Not so with the German manufacturer; he instructs his agent to inform his customers that if he has not what they require, if they will make known ifjieir wishes1, tho goods sha;l,l 'be manufactured for them. Courtesy in this direction also counts for something. Sometime ago an English scientist wishing to make some experiments with certain oils, req.uested samples from an. English firm, and also from a German. The English firm took ho notice of the application.; the German firm sent the oils desired, most carefully graded in-jars, and expressed the hope that the experiments contemplated might be entirely successful. We must look to our laurels in this world-wide peaceful competition. We have many advantages; we have prestige, enormous wealth, and vastmarkets within our own nation; but without increasing fitness for our work, thoroughness in what we undertake, and courtesy in all our transactions, in the long run we must be beaten. Britain has tauglft Germany the road to successful competition with the world: let. us not now throw awnv the tools with which, we constructed the road, lest we era finally reduce to ruins what it has taken scores of years to build up.