The Sun SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1914. GERMAN TRADE AND THE WAR.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 169, 22 August 1914, Page 8

The Sun SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1914. GERMAN TRADE AND THE WAR.

Trade valued at £907,933, in 1912, between Germany and New Zealand has been suspended by the war. Already there is an effort on the part of British manufacturers to turn the situation to account and mop up the business the Dominions have been doing hitherto j with the enemy. No doubt their efforts will be seconded by traders at this side of the wOrld, and on patriotic grounds alone there is every reason no't only for transferring orders for German goods to England, but for continuing to give the Mother Country preference after ' the war is over. In 1912, the latest year for which the figures are available, New Zealand bought goods valued at £053,230 front Germany, including the following items: Pianos and musical j instruments, £68,822; fancy goods, toys, I etc., £53,541; grass and clover seeds, |£50,717; machinery, £41,134; motors and [parts, £31,575; drugs, £24,243; bottles and glassware, £21,565. In return we exported to Germany goods valued at £254,-703, greasy wool £206,000, being the principal item. In/Australia the volume of trade with Germany is much larger. The Commonwealth imported German goods' in' 1912 valued at £7,441,246, and exported goods worth £5,134,594, and gold to the amount of £40.1,459, Clearly, Germany was getting the best of the deal, as the bulk of her imports from Australia consisted of wool and other raw material, which would be worked up and reexported back to Australia and to other countries. As long as the w y ar lasts, Germany's foreign customers will to look to England and America to. supply their wants in the matter of manufactured goods, aiuf these countries in turn Svill be able to purchase in the Dominions the raw material that would otherwise have gone to Germany. Taken in conjunction with the destruction of her mercantile marine, the loss of her trade is going to cripple Germany in such a way that it Avill take her a generation to recover from the effects of the war. Even if she is partially successful in the impending battles it will not save the situation from the economic standpoint. It is incredible that she can win such victories as will enable her, in the language of the Ivaiser, to dictate the terms of peace to the Allies, and the most she can hope to do is to put up such a fight that a peace treaty will he arrived at eventually by common consent. And in that case Germany may save her face, but it will be at the expense of her pocket. With her manufactories' idle, her trade gone, her population starving, and her credit at a low ebb, domestic troubles and disorders will keep her from being a menace to her neighbours for a very long time to come.