GERMANY'S BIG FEAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 120, 21 May 1917, Page 5

GERMANY'S BIG FEAR.

THE COMING TRADE WAR. BRITAIN THE ARCH ENEMY. LONDON, May 20. An article in the industrial paper, the "Klieuisl, v\ caipuitlian c.u_ritc, winch is puoiiMieu in 1-..-V-M-U, shows a furtner .spread ot the t>care regarding aller-war Hade, wliicu started in t_e German banking Cress, including the Berlin "iagcbiatt,' the "Luteal -vnzeiger," and the "I rank fort Gazette." There seems to be a deliberate intention to prepare the German nation for the surrender of all political claims il only peace is obtainable cm the pre-war trade conditions. The article in especially apprehensive regarding the effects oi the Imperial Conference, which it dreads far more than the I'aris Conference. It says: — "The establishment of an Imperial Customs Union would be a matter of extreme gravity for Germany, as it would, by its weight, draw a number of the smaller States into its orbit. This would be intensified a thousandfold if America joins in with a view to defeating German supremacy in trade and establishing an Anglo-Saxon domination of the world."

The article concludes: —"We have I shortly to face very disagreeable facts. |We can only gradually repair our pret war position in the world's market, but ! the conditions of peace offer our first : opportunity. Unless, however, we succeed in extorting from England absolutely unrestricted most-favoured nation treatment throughout the Rritish Empire, we shall see our hands forcibly tied in other directions by those who take their political and commercial cue from her. Our foreign trade will inevitably lag behind that of the Powers who are now preparing by drawing closer the bonds uniting them to conquer us in the coming trade war." —(Router.)

SHIP FOR SHIP.

ROME, May 20. The Allied Conference passed further resolutions demanding that the peace treaty should require Germany to replace ships illegally sunk and in favour of compulsory metric weights and measures. It discarded a suggestion for a unified coinage system.— (A. and N.Z.)