GERMANS SCARED

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3089, 21 May 1917, Page 5

GERMANS SCARED

POST-WAR TRADE INDUSTRIAL PAPER'S ARTICLE (Kec. May 19, 5.5 p.m.) London, May 18. A big industrial paper, the "EheiniscK Westfaelische Zeitung/ publishes an article showing the further spread of the scare regarding after-the-war trade which started in. the German banking Press, including the "Berliner Tageblatt," "Lokal Anzeiger," and "Frankfurter Zeitung." It seems to be tho deliberate intention, to prepare the German nation for tho surrender of all political claims if only peace be obtainable on pre-war conditions. The article is especially apprehensive regarding the effects of the Imperial Conference, which it dreads far more than tlfe Paris Conference, and says: "The establishment of an Imperial Customs Union would bo a matter of extreme gravity fov Germany, as it would by its weight draw a number of smaller States into its orbit. Tins would be intensified a thousandfold if America joins, with the view of defeating German supremacy in trade, by establishing an Anglo-Saxon world domination." The "Westfaelische" article concludes: "TVe have.shortly to face the most disagreeable facts. We can only gradually repair our pre-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 and mosi-favoured-nation treatment thronghc out the British Empire. We see our hands forcibly tied in other directions by those who take their political and commercial cue from her. Our foreign trade must inevitably lag behind that of tlie Powers who are now preparing by drawing closer the bonds -uniting them to conquer us in the coming trade war.— Aus.-JJ.Z. Cable Assn.-Reuter.