GERMAN INTEREST.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 14, 17 January 1910, Page 5

GERMAN INTEREST.

A STRAIGHT-OUT THREAT. IF TARIFF WINS THE DAY. LOXDOX, January 15. Cablegrams show that intense interest is being shown throughout South Africa and Canada, but more especially in Germany, in the result of the British elections, which commence to-day with 07 borough contests. There is more concern outside England respecting such questions as the strength of the navy, Tariff Reform, and Socialistic Liberalism than in the battle raging on the House of Lords' veto. Herr Harden, the well-known writer nnd editor of the "Zukunft," tells the Germans that Mr. Balfour is no agitator, aud that he simply warns his countrymen not to depend on the goodwill or bad temper of any other Power, and tells them that they must pay higher rates of insurance for their safety. Herr Harden adds: •'[.very Chancellery holds that an Anglo-German war is probable. There are people in Germany who declare that a Customs tariff closing the British Empire to German goods will have to be pierced by the German sword." The "Berliner Tageblatt" (Berlin)_ strongly appeals for fiscal peace between Canada and Germany, and urges the abandonment of useless insistence respecting Britain's preference. Germany, it says, should offer Canada a commercial treaty in exchange for the extension of the tariff on French goods to Germany. German capital would thus be enabled to find a sphere of operations in Canada similar to that in South America.