The Evening Star. WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1902. BOYCOTTING GERMANY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7, 9 January 1902, Page 4

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

THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1902. BOYCOTTING GERMANY.

Fop the cause that lacks assistance Fop the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance And. the good that we can do.

It is rather unfortunate for the Continental pro-Boers that the patience of the British people is not quite so inexhaustible under the insult and calumny of their neighbours as in the Jong and tedious business of reducing the South African guerillas to submission; for then Anglophobism might continue to warm itself at the large German heart, and freely direct its venom against England. The Gterrnari. axithorities would almost seem to have been under the delusion that it was inexhaustible, or they would never have countenanced a national attitude which has so insolently challenged retaliation on the part of Great Britain, at once easy to effect, and in its consequences disastrous to German interests. The alleged announcement of the Secretary for India, published in our cables last

evening, appears to have been a fabrication of that singularly enterprising journal, the "London Express." None the less we trust that it will serve us a warning to Germany. Such a warning is urgently needed. Though the German Government may disclaim any sympathy with the utterances of the antiBritish press and populace, and a section of the people even condemn these lying, attacks, the fact that that section is small and that the Kaiser, who quickly suppresses anything derogatory to his own dignity, has not interfered, gives to them an undoubted official sanction, and would justify Great Britain in retaliating against Germany as a nation. Nor, in our opinion, would retaliation on the lines suggested be unjustifiable, though somewhat contrary to our national traditions of conduct in such cases. One cannot afford to be quixotic at a time like this, and while we are roady to meet with his own weapons the enemy who comes against us in war ai-ray, so we must take what means offer themselves to fight the foe who assails our horLour with the lying tongue and the contumelious lip. We. can laugh with the Continental caricaturist who exaggerates our faults and ridicules our weaknesses, for do not our caricaturists exaggerate and ridicule his nation in turn? But it is something quite different when a whole nation make it their business to libel and vilify and pour out the vials of a lying, hostile spirit against us. How can we regard as friends those who by every device short of actual assistance uphold the cause of our^i'oes aoid rejoice in their success, as Germany is doing? Can they justly complain if at last our forbearance gives out and we resort to weapons which, though, foreign to our commercial armoury, have long

been recognised by our traducers as perfectly legitimate when in their own hands? Whether the British Government would be prepared, as the cable represented, to join in a boycott ot German manufactures, is questionable, but the consequences to Germany would be equally grave if she were face to face witn a general proscription of her g-oods such as the present popular temper of Great Britain renders not altogether improbable. Such retaliation is particularly calculated to injure the Fatherland at this moment, .when the country lies prone under the mcubus of the most severe commercial depression that Germany has ever known. With manufactories cloned, or closing- down on all .sides, shipping- idle, and established business houses in bankruptcy throughonx the land; with over 50,000 labourers out of work in Berlin alone, not to speak of other centres, nnd a severe winter, Germany can less than ever afford to quarrel with her best customer. . Lord George Hamilton's alleged, communication to the Westphalian millers-skilfully hints at the suicidal consequences of falling out with Great Britain, by reminding1 Germany that the British colonies urgently need machinery and railway supplies, which English manufacturers are unable at this time to furnish. But this reminder .should scarcely be necessary, and, indeed, would not be were the German people capable of taking a dispassionate view of the position. It is only' here and there, however, amid the anti-British clamour that has been resounding- through the German Empire, that one's ear can catch a sane counsel; such a counsel, for instance, as that of the Bremen Chamber of Commerce, which, as announced in our cables the other night, took occasion in their annual report to deprecate Anglophobia, and to call to the recollection of their countrymen the fact that the brilliant development of Germany's exports was due to the unrestricted opportunities of trade in British colonies.

The free markets of Britain and her colonies still remain the most important factor in that wonderful prosperity. As we pointed out in a recent article, English shipping companies trading with Xew Zealand actually carry German goods from Hamburg via London at nine shillings a ton less freight than they charge for English goods from London, and our Customs tariff treats boTh classes of imports alike. If the countries over which the Union Jack floats were closed against Germany, her foreign trade would be in a parlous condition indeed. Where art- her new markets? Her own colonial empire, which the Kaiser has been at such pains to build up, bulks considerably on. the map, but as feeders to her commerce it is still insignificant. There are only 3500 Germans, of whom nearly a half are officials, settled under the German flag, and what is the purchasing power of 14,000,000 blacks, the estimated native population in her African colonies'? Any Australasian city probably could take twice as much of her manufactures as a hundred of these uncivilised tribes. England's colonies are forging ahead by leaps and bounds, and every year they are becoming better customers of Germany, while German colonies, on the other hand, are still far from being self-supporting.

In these.days there is no need to demonstrate that the foreign policy of the Mother Country is that of her colonies too; and we are persuaded that, whatever the narrow instincts of the moment might dictate, in the arena of commercial strife, not less than in the theatre of actual war, the whole Empire will present an unbroken front to the common foe. The London "Express' is not astray in suggesting that the colonies will join hands with the Old Country in a policy of retaliation, such as it foreshadows, if Germany persists in her lattibUcTe. Tine % fa,rtlin,t>- announcement was yet on its way to these shores Wren, in the little town of Oamaru, here on the fringe of the Empire, the loyal inhabitants were pledging themselves to boycott German g-oods, as a protest against German calumnies. Where Oamaru has had the honour to lead, lesser and greater cities will not hesitate to follow if occasion requires. The flame of animosity which Germany has so wantonly kindled needs no fanning1- and once the conflagration starts, we -would not wonder- if it continued till every present hold and future hope of German commercial enterprise in British colonies (was consumed.