TRADING WITH THE ENEMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1915, Page 8

TRADING WITH THE ENEMY.

To the Editor. Sir,—The above matter is one that should be made the most of per public discussion, and it is a pity that anonymity is used by persons who have have ideas on the subject. Those that can should arouse the public to the importance sf keeping the money in the family. Now, no sensible person will deny that we must go to Germany for certain commodities and no doubt certain manufactures, but what I want to see made plain is whether 'British firms are to carry on the same method as obtained previous to the war, when manufactures of German origin were distributed by British merchants; when British workmen who use our products were practically existing through slackness of work; when German clerks were employed in London by the thousand and the Britisher lived in the workhouse, or starved. It is not nice reading when one tabulates newspaper information to find that in England it was necessary to have shop window exhibitions of only English-made goods so as to counteract the competition of German-made goods imported by British merchants; that German ships were employed to load English goods for English colonies; that the carbon used for the searchlights of Britisli men-o'-war had to be obtained from Germany; that dozens of English potteries were closed down and those that managed to hang on had to contend against an octo-pus-like competition from Germany, whose goods in that line were imported into England by British merchants, who cared little whether his fellow-subject starved or not. It affects the producer of New Zealand, because of the lowered demand for his products; that thousands of printers walked the streets of London and other cities, some on half-time and many starving, while work at their trade was done in Germany in the rough; that German-made matches could cause unemployment of British labor while the importer made his dividend; that British chemists were beat every time in the manufacture of dyes; that nine-tenths of the clocks used in the colonies are either of Yankee or German manufacture. What is the matter? One could go on for an endless period pointing to these tilings, which helped the German to make the whips that are used against us. How comes it that the British nation spend millions in cash and thousands of lives in subjugating savage races, yet the Yankee and the German does the cream of the trade, leaving the dregs to conservative Johnny Bull ? How comes it that we, the offshoots of Britisher?, who depend on Britain's market and Britain's cash, will use the former to obtain the latter to spend on German and Yankee materials? The whole system wants a shake up, and we of the colonies have a right to know whether this matter is to be shaken up, else the sacrifice of man and money will be in vain. Anyone who has taken note of Germany's expansion must have noticed that German commercial brains were gradually ousting the Britisher everywhere, and that that commercial force did not want war, meaning to capture the world's trade by peaceful methods, but such methods were not rapid enough for the military and high-class element who feared the spread of the socialistic power. It may not be generally known that German commercial men had practically captured the trade of a large area of Southern Russia, as witness German bankers, merchants, manufacturers and schools; that Italy was practically over-run in the same way; that America is almost so; that go where you will in any country Germans hold the best positions, do the best of trades, more particularly in those countries opened up by British blood and capital. And will people please remember that the success of the German in any country he settled in was because of his technical education, organisation and discipline when young? And if it is recognised (it cannot be gainsaid), will each now and at once do all possible to encourage the extension and adoption of technical education in all its branches in this country so as to enable the growing youth to hold a place? We have many raw materials in this country that we could workup. We say we ought to hold a population of 20 milions (I can't see where we'd put them under our present system, but no matter), and I affirm that unless a strong grip is taken on the technical education matter by all classes in this country so as to enable our kind to meet the German on equal terms—agricultural, mechanical and commercial—he will come out on top in the end. I do not want to be misunderstood, but a? we profess to be Christians, and as it is British to shake hands when the trouble is over, will we deny Germans a place in this country? We will welcome them, and then the trouble will begin. Could the Prussian King who in 1717 made the law that high and low alike must learn a trade, re-visit this globe no doubt he would be astonished at the result. Conservative John Bull did not wake up till 1889, and then halfheartedly, while we, held up as the most progressive corner of the earth, show our conservative trait by tackling the subject in a grudging manner, and still wheel the barrow in grandfather's rut -I am ,etc, JOE B. SIMPSON.