The Empire's Greatest Problem.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3222, 9 January 1917, Page 7

The Empire's Greatest Problem.

No. 11.

The couianding position held by Germany in synthetic dye production may bo farther illustrated by n niucident ' had at first hand from one who was concerned in the controversy. It was while the McKinley tariff was under consideration of Congress in Washington. An overwhelming majority were apparently bent on imposing heavy protective duties to encourage tbo establishment of the dye-industry in the United States so that they might become independent of Germany, then asserting a virtual monopoly. A correspondent of one of the German manufacturing corporations —and they aro said to have had their spies or agents in every lobby of every legislative assembly in the world—reported what was being proposed. By nay of reply tiie head of one of the largest dye trading combine*, in Germany offered to demonstrate to any commission or deputation the futility of the course proposed. A deputation went to Germany and were most hospitably received at the great central works in the Rhineland. Having shown them oyer the various buildings, replete with the most modern machinery, the German director took the deputation into his private room and drawing aside a curtain showed them a little elderly man sitting alone among retorts and testglasses and all the paraphernalia of .1 fully equipped laboratory. "There," he said, *'» a chemist who has been at his work for many years, and I have half a dozen others like him elsewhere. From time to time I giro him a few kilogramme* of coaltar and tell lum to experiment with the object of producing better dyes than previously known. He comes at eight every weekday morning and sits there smoking and experimenting. He goes away about noon and lunches on sourkrout and drmks three or four big bocks of beer. He smokes and smokes. He tests and tests with minutest care. In the evening be goes home and with his dinner lias five or six mor > hocks of beer and half a dozen pipes of tobacco. And this has gone on for years without interruption except for an_occa»» ional holiday. Krery now and again he announces some new shade which 'n tune is placed on the market. It would be useless for you or any others to attempt to bribe ony of my employees, for even if successful with one or two mere are jet otters lenjtagea in the various stages of development and each department is dependent on all the others and retains to itselt some secret of the manufacture. Any attempt to bribe the chemist himself would be as hopeless as to drain the Rhine. Furthermore each particular dye is specialised. Other houses in the same trade are equally successful m some other direction; and we do not compete with one another. Our businesses ore all thoroughly co-ordinated.

A GERMAN BOAST. That is why I say it is useless for you in America or for anyone anywhere else to attempt to exclude our German dyes. 1 do not care if yon put on a thousand per cent, duty.' You would only haTe to pay it yourselves, for, although a high tariff might restrict for a time the demand in the States, wo can regulate tho prices to suit ourselves; and before you could by any ingenuity or investment of capital discover and manufacture dyes like our newer German dyes, our chemists will have discovered others which you cannot do without, or succeed in rivalling for a considerable time. That is why 1 repeat it is folly to think of imposing heavy duties, for you cannot seriously affect our trade in aniline dyes, or for that matter, in many other directions. 60 come out and have a glass of beer." As to dye*. Germany had so consolidated her trade all the world over, that when War suddenly sealed up her ports, the first to suffer were the outside countries—-her former customers In consequence the manufacturers of silk and textile goods in England, France, America, and elsewhere, had recourse to buying up at fabulous prices' remnants of stocks of dyes wherever they could be found; and onlv slowly and painfully and inadequately have manufacturers outsdc Germanv been able temporarily to supply the sudden deficiency. In raetaflurgi • science also, Germany's advancement has been prenominal. Here again th.> initiative was with England, but here again England allowed Germany to profit. In 1876^--about 50 years after England had started the aniline-dye. industry— a junior clerk at the Marlborough Police Court, in London, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas by name, discovered a process for pig-iron. He hit on what was indeed a wonderful discovery, but there the wonder ended, unless it may he said that the wonder continued by England doing little to utilise the discovery as compared with the zeal it was taken up in Germany. There it was exploited to a remarkable extent.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY. It was in 1571, wheu France was beaten to her knees by the war brought on by the combined folly of Napoleon 111., and the diplomacy of Bisniarck. that Germany decided on the annexation of French territory bordering on the Khine, as part of the war indemnity to be exacted from France. Bwmarck decided, on the best advice then procurable, to annex tlw> eastern part of Lorraine a« Tn-inj; highly metalliferous. He drew a boundary which dinded Lorraine into two unequal parts —the rich lie took for (iermany, the poor but pictnrewine he left to France. (Th© war indemnity was fixed at fivr milliards of franc>, equivalent to about £216,000,000 sterling, Inwidea tlw lost provinces estimated at C04.000.00f> sterling, but no doubt greatly undervalued.) Tlio ore deposits of the annexed portion were immediately utiiised. They were estimated to amount to six-sevenths of the whole iron wealth of Germany at that rime. In the year l?*o—fonr years after th ■ annexation and the year before Thomas's discovery—Germany extracted from the ore deposits of Eastern Lorraine 744,000 tons as compared with a mere trifle winch the French had mined before tl>e Franco-German AVar. But this was only like scratching the surface. In 1913, forty-tiro years after the annexation, and the year before the present war- the output from this ore-basin amounted in orcr 21.000,000 tons—an increase of nearly thirty times in tho interval. Xow take a glance at the most important development of this wonderfully rich addition to the wealth and power of (iermany— that is. with regard to STEEL PROI>rCTTOX

Tt has been stated officially that in JBW. that is fire years after Thomas's

BY GEORGE HUTCHINSON.

(Specially written for this supplement.)

discovery, when the industry had become firmly established —that the snvltinjpj throughout the whole of Germany amounted to 2,500,000 tons. In I9ljf—again the year before the present war--the smeltings had increased to 1i1.000,000 tons, about seven times of which nearly two-thirds were produced by the process discovered by the Police Court clerk in the country which had gone to sleep over his di.NCOVe r y while Germany had forged ahead, r'roin the ironfields of eastern Lorraine the activities in iron and the production of steel bad so extended on both sides of the Rhine that, although the basis of the wealth is iron, this part of Germany became and remains known as the Rhinegold. The statement has been made on high authority—and s probably true —that without the resources of that former territory ot France the present War would have been impossible on the part of Germany. Now let ut turn the page to another bit of history. Bismarck's advisers in were, after all, not so wise as they thought. Great as was tho wealth )f the territory annexed, later investigation disclosed the fact that the deposits in western Lorraine —the part which had not been annexed—were far richer than those in the eastern part, which had already started Germany on her career as one of the greatest manufacturing nation of the world. So, .t was not stirprising, but quite in keeping with the designs of Germany elsewhere, that immediately on the declaration of war she speedily overran and occupied iu strength the basin of western Lorraine which beyond the boundary drawn by Bismarck, extends up to tlie range of lulls that forms the outer defences of Verdun to the eastward—once lost, now happily regained. You may have noticed on the war maps of this sector that the line of farthest German advance on the east reached out to St. Michael on the River Meuse. almost directly in the rear of Verdun, and only about 50 nides distant to the south —an advanced post to which Germany had successfully clung throughout the war, and which probably went far in determining the German Headquarters' Staff to make the fierce and determined attack they did on Verdun in Februarv last and contined on into July. THK CRUCIAL EFFORT.

If this great effort, tho result of which lias been declared to be the turning point in the War, had succeeded, Germany would not only have struck at Paris—the heart of France—hut would have consolidated her occupation of the new iron-field of western Lorraine. As it was. Germany, while pressing her advance, has been mining with intensive baste in that fresh field, which has in the most effective manner kept the furnaces of Krupp red-hot the last two years.

Another typical instance of how Germanv traded to the disadvantage of England may be quoted : —England has a'lowed Germany to import in exclusive quantities the raw material known as monazite sand, from one part of our Empire, take it to Germany and them work it up into pure thorium compounds which make the gas-mantles that have dominated the trade in that nrtu-'e not only throughout the British Empire but everywhere else. It might be said tliat this did not matter as England must have been profitably engaged in other industries more to her mind. This probably be considered a sufficient answer if Germany liad l>een content to pursue her commercial activities in a fairly competitive spirit apart from ulterior designs against her rivals in trade, but we know now that throughout her aim has been a selfish one of ultimate conquest aiming at the absolute control of all the avenue> of trade.

LESSONS NOT LOST ON THE ALLIES.

Thrift lessons, or warnings, howevet, haven ot been lost on the Allies. All former theories have been east into tho crucible of war. and the practical ,e----sttlt has been the general recognition that the altered conditions of trade have demanded an entirely new policy. For one remarkable change, the potcy of Frep Trade—free to Germany, bond to Britain—has been discarded as inadequate in the circumstances. Some of its strongest advocates have admitted the necessity for a change in the principles of action. Besides unanimously agreeing upon the Resolutions already quoted, the Allies have recently directly been encouraging the establishment within their own borders ot manufactories for certain specialise.! productions so as to render themselves independent of German supplies in the future. The English Exchequer, for instance, has already lent over a million .sterling to establish a company known a> 'British Dyes, Limited,' and lias promised to endow adequately, schools of research. France is also moving in the same direction, and the ether Allies will no doubt follow in time. But the Allies may be starting under some disadvantages in respect of their newly developed industry VI dyes. Apart from the tact tluit practical unlimited supplies <>t certain lines of goods are in Germany ready to bo exported, there is the probability that Germany has been intpforing on her refinements in synthetic combinations m» that she will have attained further valuable discoveries beyond the rea '!i of liegianers. This, however, may only mean that the Allies will have to practise a certain degreo of abstinence for a time until their researches will havo made up the Ice-wa.V.

EMPIRE MEASURES. Besides the pecuniary assistance itready given by the British Exchequer to the foundation of the new dye. :n----dustry, the Home Government has recently by proclamation inaugurated another phase ol protection by imposing a duty of t2 per ton on palm-nut kernels exported from her East African colonies,—a duty which may 1* re mitted on proof that the kernels are to be (rushed in sonic factory within the British Empire. This drastic sto,> is directed agauist the manufacture < f margarine which had recently made immense advances in Germany and Holland. Australia has taken th' bolder course of prohibiting the export of zinc and Bpeltor, except to British ports. Spelter. lieing the essential basis in the manufacture of all brassware, is, of course, indispensable u metal working; and of spelter Australia produce* tho greatest quantiU' of any country in tli*i world. With keen 'foresight the Germans had captured virtually the whole future Australian output, but tho Comonmwealtli

in one act lias .annulled all finch contracts. So fjw, good!

THE PRACTICAL QUESTION. The practical question is: What should the Allies —including ourselvns as a not unimportant participant in the War—do to re-establish and extend future trade? Will measures directed against the present "enemy countries' he enough? There are the so-called ''neutrals." —what of tlfrni? Let us assume that all enemy country manufactures are prohibited from importation inf-o any part of the British Empire. It will clearly not suffice to confine tint prohibition to goods exclusively manufactured in, or supplied direct from, Germany or her confederates. Germany oould meet any such prohibition by dealing through so-called neutrals by branch factories: or by investment of capital in businesses in these neutral countries. Indeed, she has already made preparations and arrangements 111 that direction. THE NEUTRALS. Consider tho neutral countries of Europe. With the exception of Spain they have not ceased to bo in more or less direct and dajily communication with the enemy countries of Central Europe, and it is notorious that German capital has been largely invested in tho industries of Switzerland, Sweden, and Holland. As to Switzerland, the north-eastern cantons, with Zuricn as a commercial centre, are almost exclusively German. Tho German language is their language and communication with the Fatherland is unrestricted. Across the Lake of Conbtance the great Zeppelin manufactory is. situate and the aircraft are constantly exercising over the whole fake, although the boundary is supposed *o bo half way across. For all practical purposes north-eastern Switzerland is a part of Germany, and will so remain. It may be considered a jumping-off place for her trade-war of the future. The north-western cantons are BYeuch in feeling and effect, but France has never been a keen business nation, and her energies have ail been absorbed in the terrible war that has invaded her beloved fields and largely paralysed her energies for trade. Southern Switzerland merges into Italy but she has never been a match for Germany "n trade. Sweden from fear of Russia is impelled to a friendly neutrality with Germany. Holland, to say tho least, is distinctly indistinct in her attitude and presents some curious studies .n neutrality, with a roving eye to the main-chance. The old rhyme of the Anti-Jacobin carries the mind back a century and a half when agam The fault of ttle Dutch Was in giving too little and asking too much. In Asia, China alone need by coloured neutral if anything with a yellowtinge. In Oceania, all tho islandgroups are possessions of the Allies ar under their protection, except the Pbillipines and the Sandwich Islands, which, being possessions of the United States, may bo ranked with America. (10 lie Continued.)