NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16230, 16 May 1916, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A BOAST THAT. FAILED. Discussing the resignation of Admiral von Tirpitz, Mr. Archibald Hurd, the well-known naval writer, says: "The outbreak of war pricked the Tirpitz bubble. He had boasted of what the great German fleet would do when war came. It was to find the British fleet distributed over the world's seas in small squadrons 'showing the flag;' it was to discover officers and men still under the spell of the old naval traditions of the sail era; it was to prove that British gunnery was inefficient; it was to demonstrate that British nerve was not what it was, and hence the importance which he attached to quantity of fire from the ships built under his authority, with many small guns, rather than a quality of fire, the principle embodied in the Dreadnought with its fewer big guns. In every respect Grand-Admiral von Tirpitz failed. Germans to-day are asking themselves what return ,they have obtained for the £300,000,000 spent upon their fleet, and the £20,000,000 sunk in the Kiel Canal. That waterway, which, was to mean so much added naval strength to Germany, was reopened in June, 1914, after enlargement to fit the Fisher type of ship. Germans regarded it as their tramp card. War came in the following August. The submarine, to which the Naval Secretary turned when all his other hopes were dashed to the ground, has proved a military failure. Therefore Grand-Admiral von Tirpitz makes his exit. His understudy will rule in his stead—an officer of less influence who can more easily be controlled."

HUNGER AND HATE. A connection between hunger and hate is made by Mr. A. D. McLaren, who was until recently a prisoner in Germany. He says: "The meaning of attrition became known to the German mind gradually. This was one of the few things about England and her infamy that the average man could grasp for himself, and the reasons behind his feeling were solid enough without any aid from press or politician. Early in 1915 petroleum was hardly procurable at all, the price of candles had nearly doubled, butter was a luxury for the rich, and the card-system limiting the quantity of bread purchasable each week had already been intro duced. To-day this system extends to the purchase of petroleum, meat, butter, and eggs, as well as bread. Of course, I heard chants of hate, and the Erbfeind ("hereditary enemy") was assailed with a vigour characteristically Prussian. In this respect there was a wide gulf of difference in the feeling towards England and the feeling towards France and Russia. German antagonism to Britain and ' her Empire has been compounded of a grudge and a thwarted ambition, and it has been maturing for years, whereas France and Russia were not regarded as serious stumbling-blocks by German Imperialists. This difference of attitude was reflected very vividly in the press, both before and during the war, and here, beyond question, the press was speaking for the nation."

HOLLAND IN SERIOUS MOOD. Describing the feeling in Holland in March last, rthe Amsterdam correspondent of the Daily Express wrote:—'' By sending the Tubantia and the Palembang to the bottom, Germany has absolutely changed the frame of mind of Holland to the detriment of the Germanic cause, and while nobody with any sense of public responsibility would have seriously thought, a week ago, that Holland might, after all, be dragged into the' war on the allies' side, I have heard that possibility discussed and admitted in numerous quarters as the only thing that could save Holland from becoming another Turkey or a second Bulgaria in the hands of the Teuton. Holland, needless to say, does not want war. On the contrary, every Hollander, of whatever political party, is determined to live in peace. But he wants to ' live,' and the Dutch are now being taught by the lesson of bitter and costly experience that their life, as a nation or as individuals, is not worth living as long as Germany is allowed to act as she has done during these past few weeks. It is felt .that if Holland allows these last outrages to go unchecked, more will come, and graver ones, which cannot be opposed as long as the former were admitted. The sinking of the two Dutch ships has curiously changed the pro-Germanism of even the wildest pro-Germans of Rotterdam' and Utrecht. In Amsterdam and in The Hague the Bosches have lost such little favour as they had hitherto been able to boast, and they are now almost friendless in a country to which they owe so much."

SWEDISH FEELING. In a recent letter from Stockholm, Mr. Robert Crozier Long said the movement to drive Sweden to Germany's side had declined, but there was much uproar over the formation of a Transit Company to supervise all Anglo-Russian trade, via Sweden. He proceeds : — The conditions which led to the Transit Company's formation are these. The Swedish decree forbidding transit of goods on Sweden's own export prohibition list and our export prohibition threatened a . complete deadlock. A modus vivendi, which never took the form of a definite agreement, was reached. England gave licenses for export to Sweden of goods on the export prohibition list in exchange for Swedish licenses permitting transit to Russia. Merchandise was matched against merchandise, sometimes by value, sometimes by weight. Without a special organ this system would not work. Hundreds of applications for licenses had to be handled by our Stockholm Legation ; there was no suitable machinery for controlling them ; and there was no guarantee that England, in exchange for licenses to export to Sweden, was getting the promised consideration— to Russia. The system led to abuse. Goods cannot go between England and Russia on a through bill of lading. They go to Sweden. The further forwarding is in the hands of agents, who are often not Swedish subjects, but subjects of belligerent Powers, Russian subjects of no.iRussian race with no moral allegiance to Russia, and others whose only interest in the war is profit. Such profit can be made by arranging that goods from England to Russia, and vice versa, shall not reach their destination, but shall reach Germany. The bills of lading are negotiable. Germans, being most in need, pay the best prices, and the agent explains to his Russian employer that the goods went astray, or were never despatched. Only a system of control could stop this abuse. Apart from the abuse, the mere handling and checking of licenses required an organisation. The organisation is the Transit Company."-