MADE-IN-GERMANY "POOL."

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 165, 9 June 1919, Page 4

MADE-IN-GERMANY "POOL."

The Hun is as- wily and subtle, and .just as little to be trusted, when he is engaged in "peace-" negotiations as whou lie was openly "out" to destroy Great Britain, by fores of arms. Bis latest proposal, .that the world's merchant shipping shall be "pooled" | under the League of Nations, -will naturally be received with considerable susnicion aiid distrust by the Allies. The fact is that Fritz is vast I v concerned about the future or- | liis shipping tracK Ho had .first dreamt dreams of a" world monopoly of the ocean-carry in c; traffic, once hiV U-boats had clearer! the seas of all British vessels. Then, as the certainty of defeat began.-to ddwn upon l.im. he consoled himself with the thought thijt, after all. he would he r.blo to lruike an excellent new start y;ith all liis fine vessels Avhich were interned in America and other ports. But lie has seen those vessels held as a guarantee for the payment of indemnities, and now he is at his wits' end to find tonnage to transport the vast stocks of goods his manufacturers have been piling Up during the war to the South American and'othev markets. So he calmly proposes a process by which 'he Avill indirectly come into.'some at least of his own again. It is scarcely likely that Groat Britain and France will, fiirree to any such scheme. Even President- Wilson, *> with a.U his unpractical, ultra-sentimental inclination to be "tender" to a beaten foe. i is nob likely to accept, a proposal which the American just-as much as the British apd French shipowners would most bitter]v oppose. Fritz should have thought of a possible, shipping shortage (in German ports) v.hen his. U-boats uere so . busy ;<.t thoir devilish work of destruction. It is rather too late in the day. to think of it now.