Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE,. THURSDAY, FEB. 27, 1919. KEEP OUT THE HUNS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14848, 27 February 1919, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE,. THURSDAY, FEB. 27, 1919. KEEP OUT THE HUNS.

One of the greatest difficulties confronting Britain is how to keep at bay the- Hun njivad6rs. There is only too much reas6n' to believe that the Germans will y attempt "peaceful penetration" just &s skilfully, just as thoroughly, m thej days to come as they did. i Hn tho prefwar period. . The stringent ecpnomic conditions m their own country will send! many of them- abroad, either as, immigrants seeking work or as trade agents endeavoring to restore Germany's lost commerce. They will seek entry Into j Britain because it is the freest aiid most' tolerant country of all, and if they cannot get into Britain Jthey will probabjly try to creep into the Dominions overseas. Of course, they will not' come as Teutons — they will be camouflaged Huns. Mr. C. Tower, a Brit- j ish. correspondent at the Hague, has sent timely warning to England of the' host of undesirables who are seeking to enter Britain from Holland. There is the Hun who poses as a Dutchman Or a Pole and. may be difficult to detect be-' fcause he speaks Dutch or Polish, and is provided wjith forged passports and papers. Tliere is the neutral who is a German gofbetween .and agent. There is the Russian anarchist and "political, refugee." Such persons have been admitted freely into England) m the pasty and will be so again unless public opinion awakens to the danger and galvanises the immigration authorities into life. Sir Frederick Smith at Liverpool Mated that' "out of every 20 Germans who settled m Britain 18 were spies," and that at present there are waiting m Holland, with tickets ready for England, "about 20,000 aliens, Poles, Russians, and persons of mixed blood and German fusion." "Germans and German agents m Holland are as well disciplined as! ever," said 'Mi*. Tower tb the Daily. Express.. "Since November 11th you rarely hear German m the streets, cafes, or trains, but you hear _jpme queer Dutch and worse English. Naturally these obvious people are not the most dangerous, for unless the elaborate organisation of four years is to be scrapped at once and any out-at-elbow ruffian to be admitted to Britain most of these people will only mildly amuse our much-experience*d officials m Rotterdam. But Stinnes, Thyssen, and the rest of the' West German millionaires as well as Bolshevists, work with other tools. Their careful organisation, which includes shipping, banks with Dutch branches, and' original Dutch j business houses with German branches, perhaps will not work so smoothly as

'they hoped, but they have very large j capital and very plausible people m their service. It is known that German firms have at their disposal neutral agents who throughout tne war have been paid to do nothing except keep themselves inconspicuous. Some of their very best men were not allowed to work m German interests even when the German neect was most pressing. They Were Germany's last business reserves, kept for the after- war offensive. * Then there are -Bolshevist people. . with •■"■■ French. Dutch,- and English names who hold periodical meetings m • quiet cafes of Amsterdam and the Hague. 'These people are maintained, with, German* and Rtfssian money,' live modestly but respectably, and are always working at connections with Entente countries. Yet another group of dangerous -persons are sp-callecTßussian unemployed. There are plenty still m Holland waiting for a chance to cross over to England.' Another correspondent with the Army of Occupation at Saarbrucken confirms Mr. Tower's observation that the Germane are expecting a renewal of trade relations with Britain. He has heard the views of bank managers, town councillors, Socialist and Labor leaders, and they all say: "When we get our peace trade it will be larger than over, because England will want our machinery and! other articles of which the war lias deprived you." Nobody seemed to "re-alise-the terrible tragedy which has happened to the world, nor its consequences to Germany,, and they' are full of plans of resuming relationships with Britain, France,' and tho United States. "Verily," says tbe correspondent, "the German mentality is a psychological phenomenon. T-hese people have no conception of the horror they have caused "throughout the world or the consequences which must accrue. 'We have made a revolution,' they say. 'We have swept all that away. Now we begin.' " English newspapers have recently been bearing record of Hun preparations to swamp the British market with cheap labor and dumped! goods. Communications ■ have been received by merchants m England from German firms offering or asking for agencies. The London Chamber of Commerce is enquiring into a whole series of stealthy efforts to introduce. German goods. We believe the same attempts will , be made to break into the colonial markets, and all our merchants and tradlers would do well to be on their guard. The public will have nothing to do with German goods, and severe disapprobation will fall upon any merchant or cheap jack who attempts to trade m them. Another class that is being watched at Home comprises the Dutch firms which represented British interests before the war, but during it were black-listed by Hbhe Government for helping the Huns. These jpeople supplied/ the enemy with munitions and food, and increased • the Allies' difficulties and losses. The London Chamber of Commerce has been asked to prepare a practical scheme for excluding these 'dubious and dkngerous neutrals from the benefits of future British trade. New Zealand also has a black list of firms m America and Europe with which dealings were prohibited during the war. It would be a good thing ii copies of that list wero circulated amongst chambers of commerce and? filed for reference by members. After all the perils and anxieties of the wat period traders should be veiy cautions with whom they deal, and m view ioi the immense burden of debt that the Old _ Country has to bear the call oi patriotism comes insistently to-day tc everyone to give British merchandise the preference wherever possible.