GERMAN INFLUENCE AT BACK OF PROTEST.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13575, 31 December 1914, Page 3

GERMAN INFLUENCE AT BACK OF PROTEST.

WHOLESALE SMUGGLING OF

CONTRABAND

(Received December 31, 8.5 a.m.)

LONDON, Dec. 30. The Chronicle states j If British search is faulty in practice, Britain must amend the practice, but many of the complaints are trivial/ Britain doubtless concedes what it can consistently do with the legitimate successful prosecution of the war, but 'if America wishes to assist individuals to make large profits out of the Germans' necessity, such a policy would be unfriendly to the Allies. Tlie Daily News .emphasise that the gain to Ameiiica from shortening, the war as the result of the Allies' blockade most vastly outweigh any temporary loss due to restriction of American trade with Germany.

An American correspondent suggests that the best .remedy would be to induce neutrals to place watertight embargoes upon the re-exportation, also strict supervision of manifests.

The Times, in a. leading article, dealmg with the American Note, says : It is dated the 24th, and we cannot help imagining that on 'the- «ve of the great festival of peace and goodwill the date was not accidentally chosen for the despatch of this friendly communiication. We ask Americans to remember we are waging a war of attrition against two Continental States possessing hardly any seaboara of their own.

NEW YORK. Dec. 30.

Mr Mann, speaking in the House of Representatives, said he hoped the Administration would insist ■on the right to ship neutral goods in, neutral ships, and to preserve our rights abroad. "We do not intend, in order to keep out of the war, to say to the nations. 'You can do what you please.' There is no danger of our getting -into the war because we stand up for right. Neither England j.or Germany can , afford to make > war with us. We must, uphold our p'osition oh the seas with dignity and firmness.'? . Washington reports state that it is feared the publication of the Note marks the inauguration of a sharp campaign calculated to do the general standing of the British harm. Complaints of American traders and producers arc growing daily in volume. The copper, meat, and oil (interests are protesting against interference with the trade of neutrals.

There is every reason to suspect that the Germans are working assiduously to concoct a. joint protest by neutral Powers against British control of the seas. Trade returns prove there has been wholesale smuggling of contraband into Germany through neutrals.