The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 5, 1923. THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXX, Issue 3, 5 September 1923, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, SEPT, 5, 1923. THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS.

The commercial ideal of nations is to so increase production that ex-

, ports exceed, or at least Balance, imports; ana it is disturbing to be told that adhesion to this principle by the" traders and manufacturers : of Britain in the early years of the j war actually prolonged the war. ] Rear-Admiral M. W. M. P. Consett, i C.M.G., in conjunction with Captain | Daniel of the Royal Navy, has published a book entitled, "The Triumph of Unarmed Forces (1914-1918)." This book is styled, "An account of the transactions by which Germany during the great war was able to obtain supplies prior to her collapse under the pressure of economic forces." Mr L. Cope Cornford has ! an article which is a scathing indlct- | ment of British traders based upon. j the facts revealed in this book. His j article was published in the NationI ai Review for July, and was headed \ "The Greatest Tragedy in History." |Mr Cornford's indictment, founded upon Admiral Consett's revelations, , is that while everyone knows that the economic exhaustion of Europe is due to the immense unproductive expenditure of foodstuffs, raw material, and manufactured material, during the four and a-half years of war, few people know (and those few have good reason for keeping silence), that the length of time during which that expenditure continued was the direct result $£ two j things: "One was the private tradj ing with the enemy of this country; I the other was the policy of His Maj- | esty's Government which permitted ; traders in this country to supply the | enemy." Nations going to war know | that the enemy of each' has a right j to maintain trade with neutral couni tries, if he can, and that neutral ships carrying supplies, other than I munitions of war, are immune from | confiscation. It will be remem--1 bered that the Germans endeavored to justify the destruction Amer- . ican vessels carrying; supplies to , Great Britain on the allegation that j they were carrying munitions of war. But what is to be said if when i one nation is under the greatest j stress defending the lives and liberties of its.people, a section of its subjects increase the export of manj ufactured goods to neutral counI tries, far in excess of those coun- | tries' normal known requirements, and shut their eyeß to the self-evi- , dent fact that the excess of goods j so exported is merely going to the enemy through the doors of the neutral port, as easily as water would flow through a sieve. This free passage of supplies for the enemy was not the fault of the Navy. "There is no record in history (writes Admiral Consett) in which a fleet has carried out the work of blockade so efficiently as did the British Fleet In 1914-18; the number of ships that escaped its unceasing watchfulness was negligible; the effectiveness of the work of the Navy was, unfortunately, seriously impaired by the release of many ships without the authoritative sanction of the Prize Courts." Mr Cornford's summing up on this head, having the book before him., is written boldly: "But behind the unarmed forces of economic pressure stood the Royal Navy. It was the complete control of all sea-borne supplies by the Navy which enabled this country, first, to supply the enemy, and, second, to stop supplies. With a very few exceptions, every cargo was arrested. The purpose of the Navy is to ensure the security of the sea to our ships and to deny the sea to the ships of the enemy. Never before had that purpose been more superbly achieved. Never before had it been so disastrously wasted. For from 1914 to 1917 the work of the Navy was undone by the Government. Ships carrying supplies to the enemy were sent into port by the Navy and were then released'by the Government." When Amercia came into the war in April 1917, trading with the was at once stopped, and the consequent exhaustion inflicted on Germany ended the war in the following year. j