TRADE AFTER THE WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, 21 May 1917, Page 6

TRADE AFTER THE WAR

-GERMAN FEARS. CONCERN REGARDING THE "ALLIES' INTENTIONS. (Australian, and N.Z. Oabla Association and Renter..} LONDON, May 18. The big industrial paper, the Rheinisch Westfaelische Zeitung, publishes an article showing the further spread of the scare regarding after-war trade •which has started in the German banking press, including the Berliner Tageblatt, the Lokalanzeiger, and. the Frankfurter Zeitung. There seeni6 to be a deliberate intention to prepare the German nation for the surrender of all political claims if only peace is ootailiable on pre-war trade conations. The article is especially apprehensive regarding the effects of the ImpJr.nl Conference, "which it dreads far more than the Paris Conference. It ays that the establishment of an lii.poiia! Customs Union will be a matter ef extreme gravity for Germany, as. it would by its weight draw a number of smaller States into its orbit. This will be intensified a thousandfold if America joins ■with a view oJ defeating German supremacy in trade, and establishing an Anglo-Saxon world domination. The "Westfaelische Zeitung's article concludes: "We will have shortly to face most disagreeable facts. We can only gradually repair the pre-war position in the world's markets, but the conditions of peace will offer our first opportunity. Unless, however, wesucceed in extorting from England an absolutely unrestricted most f avou yd nation treatment throughout the J3. : j : ?h Empire, we shall see our hands fori i l 'y tied in other directions by those who take their political and commercial cue from her. Our foreign trade will inevitably lag behind that of the Powers who are now preparing by drawing closer the bonds uniting them to conquer ■us in the coming trade war."