ENEMY TRADERS

Evening Post, Volume XC, Issue 38, 13 August 1915, Page 3

ENEMY TRADERS

SOME "SUBMARINE" METHODS A WARNING. To the uncommercial observer, it must seem difficult for Germany to conduct overseas trade under present conditions, and, therefore, all the elaborate precautions taken by this Government, in common with Governments of the Allied Powers, are works of supererogation. Germany, it would seem, is limited as to trade with other countries to Norway and Sweden, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland. For the rest of her manufactures, she must absorb them herself. But there has been furnished, even to this country so remote from the actual war region, ample proof of attempts of the enemy to pick up the threads of lost trade and to resume the pro Stable relations existing before the war. The methods adopted suggest submarine tactics in their cunning ; m other words, they would be called underhand. _ The most glaring attempt made yet is . that of running actually German-made goods, or goods manufactured by German firms in neutral countries, in ships of neutral countries. The High Commissioner, referring to one shipping line, has clearly stated that any encouragement of this line might indirectly assist German trade and shipping. The hon. secretary of the Institute of Shipowners, London, has publicly stated that. Albert Jensen, of Copenhagen, who was recently sentenced to imprisonment in Denmark for attempting to smuggle copper into Germany, is the same Jensen who has, "since the commencement of the war, founded several shipping companies for the purpose of acquiring and running steamships, and the authorities have good reason to believe that the capital for this enterprise is mainly provided by Hngo Stinnes, the German coal magnate, which indicates that the steamers will be run for the benefit and in the interests of Germans. The Home Office is most anxious that Jensen should not obtain any assistance in the United Kingdom to acquire neutral ships, or otherwise, and it is in this direction that tiie efforts of the members of this Institute are particularly desired. The council feel that they have only to draw your attention to this important matter in order to secure your cooperation, and they will be g^lad if you will circulate amongst your friends, who are not members of the Institute, the requests made by the Home Office. The council further desire me to point out that in trading either directly or indirectly with an individual of the calibre of Jensen grave risks are run, as such actions are capable of being construed as 'trading with the enemy.' Conviction on such a charge will entail heavy penalties; it is therefore essential tha-t where a shadow of suspicion exists, members should make most stringent enquiries with a view to ascertaining that all business with neutrals is bona fide and free from any chance of the alien enemy being in reality the principal." So much for shipping. There has not yet appeared to be any oyert connivance of neutral countries with German traders to smuggle thir\goods into Allied countries, but no Government, not even our own, can be quite sure that its subject* for purposes of gain will not lend themselves to this kind of thing. If goods branded, say, " Manufactured in ' Sweden," were to be sent out in a Swedish ■ship, traders might feel they were quite safe in purchasing such goods, although they would be most unwilling, and their cutomers would be most unwilling, for any consideration, to contribute a farthing to the Germans; and yet they might unwittingly be doing so all the time. A» a matter of fact, samples of goods have been received in New Zealand from firms jn Sweden, Denmark," Switzerland, and Holland, from firms of which they had not heard of, or of which they knew very little before the war pressure on German export trade became sensibly acute. Samples of hosiery, ribbons, enamelled ware, and other goods of which the Germans made a feature, and of which expert* can tell at a glance or a touch the! origin, are coming in from countries contiguous to Germany, and some are branded with the name of the country from which they are exported. Enamelled iron ware, for instance, marked Swedish manufacture, in it« finish and general appearance is so like the German article as to arouse the strongest suspicions in traders' minds that it actually is German, made by Germans with German capital and German plant, just transferred during the war to neutral ■ territory. No doubt such, "new" or additional industries find a warm welcome in those neutral countries ; but there is no guarantee given that the goods are not German, notwithstanding the change of venue. Not even the assurance contained in the words stamped on all correspondence " All goods guaranteed to be of genuine Swedish origin ; Consular certificate supplied," will remove tho impression that the goods are actually 'German. The guarantee doesn't state that there is no German interest whatsoever in the manufacture. It does not go far enough to remove the suspicion that Germans are attempting to reach overseas markets for their goods through neutral countries, and so in part minimising the effects of the British blockade. Whatthe enemy may be attempting to do in New Zealand it may be relied upon he is doing in oversea neutral countries through neutral European port*. It is evidence, too, that he is not able^ to absorb all he manufactures, and besides, needs the foreign gold with which^ such goods must be purchased, _ because gold only will be accepted in payment by neutral countries for goods supplied, the paper mark, of course, being Valueless outside the German Empire. Traders will require to watch out lest they innocently render themselves liable to penalties for trading with the enemy. They may be even doing so already in spirit, if not in fact.