DEAD HAMBURG

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2370, 28 January 1915, Page 7

DEAD HAMBURG

0 — HUNDREDS OP SHIPS LAYING IDLE IN HER WATERS. In an. interesting dispatch sent from Amsterdam the special correspondent of a London newspaper draws a striking contrast between the Hamburg of yesterday and the Hamburg of to-day. He says;— Of. all the cities that have come within the influence of the war there is probably none which has been so completely obanged as Hamburg, the gate through Which in normal times there passes so much of the trade that has helped to whet Germany's appetite for the commercial and military domination of the world. At the present moment Hamburg is a city of what might be called almost impossible contrasts. It must be remembered that there are two Hamburgs; the part and the city proper; and it is these two which provide two of tho strangest of all strange pictures that emerge from the smoke of conflict.

Hamburg the port is stagnant, silent, dead. In its vast water spaces lie hundreds of ships that some months ago were steaming to and fro on the seven eeas, taking their full share in the work of the world. Now they lie still, deserted, under guard. In sharp contrast to this scene, this absence of all sound or sign of activity, is the feverish rush of work going on in that part of t.he city's waterways dovoted to shipbuilding. Exactly what the nature of this work is it is imposEiblo to say. Even a trusted visitor, .a neutral Dutchman, was not allowed too near this area. But it may be said that without doubt this activity is entirely due to Germany's determination to increase by every possible means her naval strength. Great efforts are being made by Herr Ballin, of the Hamburg-Amerika' Line, to carry on regular sailings from the port .to Scandinavia, but this does not at present amount to much, and tho port of Hamburg derives little or no profit from it. Not one of these 1 hundreds of merchant ships dare put to sea, because the British Navy is—somewhere.

Hamburg has been placed in a curious position since Germany took possession of Antwerp. The townspeople ara torn between admiration for a German feat of arms and fear for the future of {heir own prosperity. _ They do not disguise their fear that, with Antwerp a German port, Hamburg's wealth would largely disappear. And so there is general dismay in commercial circles over the taking of Antwerp.