The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1916. CRIPPLING GERMAN TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1916. CRIPPLING GERMAN TRADE.

The statement of Hen- Riedl, an officer in the Austrian Ministry of Commerce, that 'peace could come over-night," lias probably no significance as a warning of an early cessation of hostilities, but they may serve as an incentive to pre-y-i for the trade war which must bo entered upon when the present hostilities cease. For there has been ample warning tliat Germany will not lose a day after the war in embarking on her commercial campaign, the avenue through which she will seek- to recover her former power. Britishers know this, and the sentiment throughout the Empire is splendid, hut sentiment is futile until it is expressed in action. "We will cripple German trade," is the keynote of British feeling to-day, but the welding of that fiscal chain which must be drawn around the Homeland and the Dominions must be taken in hand seriously without delay. This matter of erecting a barrier against the commercial activity by Clermany after the war is at once so complex and varied in its application that local industrial circumstances will inevitably provide so important an influence that it must, remain for each part of the British Empire to adopt its own particular attitude. Both in Britain and in the. Dominions the matter has for some time past been discussed academically and practically, commercial men and economists being quite unanimous that something must bo done to prevent enemy manufactures from again getting a hold of any portion of the Empire's trade. To what extent prohibition should go there is a. difference o( opinion, and one gentleman admirably expressed a popular feeling when he said ''total prohibition -would defeat its own ends, and would lead to a great deal of smuggling through neutral countries, but the publie need educating to their duty in as far as possible keeping German goods out of the Dominion.'' On the other hand, imports from enemy countries could be made the means of raising additional revenue, thereby helping to defray some of the additional expenditure they had forced on the Kmpire by bringing about the war. It lias been suggested that there should be adopted some such graduated scale of import duties, as follows:—British goods, 20 per cent.; goods from Allied countries, per cent.; goods from neutral countries. 3;i per cent,; enemy goods, ,"() per cent. New Zealand, can, bv comprehensive industrial activity, do much in replacing enemy goods, and goods generally, with our own. or British, or, failing those, the products of our Allies. The most effective protection against enemy goods would undoubtedly be to popularise the "made in New Zealand'' article, and a little enquiry into New Zealand products will show how organised industry can bring this about. Wool forms one of Xeiv Zealand's greatest products, and yet we imported, before the war, woollen goods to the value of about, £3oo,(loft annually, and we only used about four per cent. 0: our wool for our own manufactures. '1 he quality of New Zealand woollen goods cannot be challenged, and the only reason why" the imports should not be reduced to a minimum is the cost of manufacture. If this can be overcome tlm j V.'nelit would be twofold—a sour£o of ! vast leakage would be closed, r,nd the | country would roan the enormous benefits 0i huge industrial operations. An

ell'ort is being made to establish t.he wood-pulp industry—timber Inus on the West Coast lias been securei ;Vor the purpose. Again, we inamifactusfe some .C 140,000 worth of preserved fruit-and import C worth. Oip» coast? tu-'in with all sorts of edible ;ish, yet while our manufactures i„ th» prepared ■'ntide amount to .-c;i0,000 a year, our imports exceed £30,000 (in taeh ease quoted round Jigiires are given); but it must be remembered that tlia imported fish is mostly of a kind not to be obtained locally. Our iron deposits, accessible, and rich as they are, are still to be exploited, though Australia has begun the manufacture of steel iu quantity. These are but a few instances of unexploitcd industrial fields which New Zealand must look to if she is to eQectively close the door to her enemies. Whatever may be the outcome of the war Germany's future lies in her commercial activity, and by harnessing local resources New Zealand can materially assist to eliminate commefeial Germany. It is imperative that Germany i-hall not be allowed to rcirain her world's markets anil thereby reconstruct the military machine which it is now taking millions of lives and millio of men to destroy; (he future pence of the world depends on this. Tt will be seen by to-day's cable:! lhat the. Manchester Chamber of Commerce has discussed the post-war trade policy based on three systems of regulation. The. suggestion that (lie Allies bold an Imperial conference to frame an agreement for a commercial blockade of Austria and Germany (and such neutrals as Holland, who are supplying German factories with goods by way of re-export), should commend itself as a lever well calculated to attain the object in view.