BURSTING THE BLOCKADE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11670, 10 April 1916, Page 2

BURSTING THE BLOCKADE.

WHY GERMANY IS NOT STARVING AVARICIOUS NEUTRALS. (Correspondent Sydney " Sun.") LONDON, January 13. Ships cross the Atlantic, bearing grain for -Holland, wool for Denmark, pork for Sweden., cotton for Norway. Spanish- ore comes along .for Holland, American tobacco for Denmark, South American rubber for Sweden, Javanese ; copra for Norway. And so the everlasting procession passes towards Germany, and the ships are collected by British cruisers and destroyers—even by submarines and armed trawlers—and brought along "to British ports. It is an open secret that at Kirkwall, where the principal concentration takes place, there are always scores of ships waiting for examination, and each one has meant & patient vigil, perhaps a hoarding in th 6 storm—perhaps the loss of a naval seaman or two! It is monotonous though dangerous work in these winter days and nights, and the Navy does not pretend rto like it. But it is tho blockade. - When you think that nearly all these ships are later -allowed to pass on to their destination, and that there is mors than more suspicion that a vast amount of goods finds its way to Germany and Austria, you will understand that a spasm of vexation sometimes gets into those honest sailors' dislike. On the two occasions on which I have been privileged because of my countrymen's deeds in Gallipoli, to visit the

fleet, I have noticed this vexation expressed with simple sailor-like directness. And~there are more ways of deileating the blockade, and nullifying the fleet's winter work, than by feeding neutral nations and allowing them to sell home-made food to Germans. One way is the parcels post. We held up the Christmas parcels jmail to Sweden from the United States last month. The parcels consigned to Germany were not only open contraband, but in many cases were filled with food and cotton packed in the most elaborate manner. Onions were ( found to contain balls of rubber, wound round a core like the inside of a golf ball. Red Cross stores were mere Jeoyerings* for wool, and condensed food of all kinds was found in such harmless Christmas gifts as children's toys and" hooks. At a .German officers' prison in the-south of England which I visited recently tho camp censor told im© how Germans tried to send to prisoners letters hidden in little bottles of meat paste, and. a cutting from a newspaper ,was found inside a cake. In beating the blockade, the process is reversed. The food is the mystery, and it requires the 'combined senses of the Sherlock Holmes of the Commerce Department to discover it. THE MARGIN (OF SAFETY.

Most people are saying in this country. "Put neutral States on tight rations and .don't allow them to import more than just enough to bring the supplies of home-made goods up to tho amount needed to '.keep them alive." A cry of "Tighten the*blockade " has swept the cotjntry, and the Government is once .'more bending to the storm. There has been weakness in dealing with neutrals, and Sir Edward Grey's policy—fully backed by the Prime Minister—has been to allow each neutral to import a fair margin over the normal requirements of the country. Our position at the commencement of the war had been weakened by long negotiations for the restriction of sea power. Sir Edward Grey had not foreseen this war. He had even signed cix weeks previously an agreement with Germany giving her groat concessions in railway building in Asia Minor. He had agreed to the Declaration of London, which had fortunately •-.been ■ rejected by the House of Lords, and which we were able at once to repudiate. He had the example of the American "War of 1861 before him. He handled the trade of Germany with kid gloygs ; and so fearful was he of complications with neutrals that it was thirteen months before he would declare cotton contraband. Yet it must be remembered that we are even at present doing many things which international law might not justify, and that it has become a question now of throwing over tender considerations of others and relying on our long, strong arm at sea. In other words, when it tightens the blockade to strangulating tension the Government will bo defying international law. American jurists claim that' our position now is indefensible, that we have declared contraband what we cannot legally put upon the list, and that we are enforcing blockade measures though our.blockade is not even half a blockade, for it does not control tho Baltic. And so the Foreign Office rather dreads that next move, it keeps in anxious touch with the American Embassy here, and in its trepidation! it offends United States traders by holding their ships for many days in Kirkwall and other ports, whereas, if they were given prompt, if-restricted, treatment they would be less injured. A leader of the agitation for severe restriction of imports to neutrals said to me: "We know that America will not fight us. Wo know that she will not place an embargo on the export of munitions, for they mean money. Wo .know that. Holland and Denmark and Sweden will not do more than protest; and in any case. > negotiations, Notes, and diplomacy with neutrals can be strung out over many months, as Germany has shown. Therefore, we advocate the full and unshackled use of sea power./" That is not quite the British way of waging war. But in this war ol extermination there can no longer bo room for the pockets of outside neutrals. PERMISSIVE ENEMY TRADING.

Another important consideration with the Foreign Office has been the necessity for a certain limited trade with Gormany. We are buying some German goods—small in quantity, but almost vital in thoir utility—and the best.way of getting these is to allow certain goods to go into Germany through neutral countries in. exchange. Mr Mackinder, -in tho Houso of Commons, perhaps the greatest commercial gcographist of his time, has shown how Germany secured a monopoly of " keyindustries '' before the war—such industries as metals, optical glasses for field and laboratory work, and dyes. While agreeing that no foreign nation must be allowed to secure " key-indus-tries" ever again, wo are content to get somo small quantities of important goods through the blockade. For this reason wo have, in our agreements with Danish merchants, to allow unlimited import into Germany of tea, tobacco, and cocoa, through tho recognised agencies in Denmark. The Foreign Office argument ii, that tea and tobacco are not strengthening, and that it does no harm to our cause to let them through, while providing profits for our merchants and enabling easy payment for those goods we ourselves slip through the blockade for, our own use. There seems a general disposition amongst those few people who really rule the Empire to continue this traffic in tea and tobacco. But the trade in cocoa is being bitterly attacked. It is pointed out that the fats are being oxtraced from cocoa for use in explosives, and here again the old party cry 19 raised, and the Conservative Press wants to know whether this extraordinary trade is being allowed for the of cocoa firms which for many years have poured wealth into Liberal coffers, and have maintained its greatest newspapers. GERMANY'S SERVING PANTRY. During the last few weeks the tricks

) of Scandinavian and Dutch traders in their traffic with Germany have been fully exposed. Under our trade agreements, which have never been published, but which are supposed to allow to selected trade organisations a limited amount of 'imports monthly, based on their normal poace requirements, these traders Jiavo been allowed to get through tho blockade a vast quantity of food products and other contraband goods. There are definite guarantees that none shall find a way into German hands. Even the Governments of these neutral countries place their hallmarks on tho agreements, and undertake to provent by every means in their power illicit traffic across thoir frontiers. But the futility of trusting to such contracts is now apparent. It is typically British to trust to tho honour even of small traders, and to place great opportunities of wealth-makinc in the hands of neighbours, and think they will not be abused. The result has been that the indefatigable and unscrupulous German commercial agents in Scandinavia and Holland have been inducing small traders to supply them with many trainloads of food and contraband. In Holland there is oven a recognised route for traffic of tho unpardonably illicit kind, a great tunnel having been constructed under the frontier lino. The peasants go across the frontier with rubber round their waists, with cotton! under the apples in their baskets, with condensed food of all kinds concealed in their waggons. This kind of traffic call, of course, never bring much relief to a hungry people of seventy millions. But a really serious traffic does exist in the form of legal sale of whole trainloads of local merchandise. The Danes are allowed by the Foreign Office to import a certain quantity of woob and beef—a far larger quantity than in normal times —but under &■ guarantee that none of it goes to Germany. What they do is to consume this produce in their . own country, where good beof has risen to the enormous price of 2s 6d a lb, and to .send across the frontier their own pork, butter, and what wool they oan spare. A moment's study of the great decrease in the Danish exports of butter, pork and eggs to Great Britain since the beginning of the war, despite the high prices ruling here, gives a very easy answer to the question: Are.the Danes feeding the Germans? ' Waggons are even now being loaded in Holland for Gormany with 150 tons of old lead, the Dutch being quite confident that Britain will allow the import of new metals to take the place of old, Tho German trado with these neutrals is so extensive that Berlin is making every endeavour bolster up the rate of exchange for the German mark, this rate having dropped nearly 30 per cent owing to the largeness of the German imports and tho necessity for sending out great quantities of gold to pay for them. A DEAL IN OIL. Take the case of a cargo of oil which the Foreign Office has this week passed through to Denmark. It is 8550 barrels/shipped from Philadelphia in a Danish steamer. I can vouch for the fact that our sailors faced serious risks in a storm to bring this cargo into Deal. They were ordered from London to release it. I know also that 3500 barrels of lard was recently allowed through to Denmark, was shipped on to Sweden, and thence passed to the German port of Lubeck—there to be used in shell-making. "What is to prevent a valuable corgo of oil following the same route, and fulfilling the same purpose of forming murderous German war material ? A little exchange of owners, % few exchanges of port, and it gets through to the starving markets of Berlin. There is a good, deal of excuse for those critics who, in this country of remarkable liberty, even in war-time, are allowed by the censor to speak and write of the "sham blockade." I

There is special excuse for them, in .that their pleadings are being heard, and action is at length promised by the Government. True, the Australian, more. direct in his methods, more opportunist An his doctrines than the Englishman, marvels', that his Government should so . frequently .'rield to clamour in matters in. which to" admit past neglect is to admit tho sacrifice of many of tho best lives or the country and the loss of some of its glory and power. To take a few instances, tho Government denied loudly. for weeks that it was lax in shell-making', that it was lax in army-raising, that it was lax in administration at the War Office, that it was lax in refusing to declare cotton contraband. In all these and many more matters it ended by admitting that its critics were right, and in taking belated action as its critics desired.

It cannot bo said that Australians are not for uncompromising use of all our might, on sea and land. Were even for ruthless and unquestioning use of it. We. would conduct the war with less regard for feeling and social influence and traditional class privileges than the British statesmen have. And, doing so, we would perhaps find ourselves involved in war with America, and we might have Sweden sending its army into Finland and making more trouble for Russia.

NOT STRANGLED, BUT GASPING. It has to bo said for tho Foreign Office that although the blockade may not be strangulating, it is tight enough to make Germany gasp. Whether the Central Powers are drawing onough .food from Scandinavia. Holland, Rumania and conquered territories, and indirectly from America and other parts of the world, to replace their own inadequacies, it is impossible to .say. No one has attempted to prove that food and contraband imported in spito of the blockade is sufficient to make tho difference between actual starvation and mere insufficiency. On that point one has still to keep an open mind. But one may be quite sure that the blockade is making the Germans suffer. The great bulk of the working classes is to-day slightly underfed. Those who have money can buy ample supplies, and the army is excellently fed. I have seen orders issued by general officers in the German army pointing out that battalion commanders are spt-nding too much mone}' on food, considering that the supplies from Holland and Denmark are coming to ha_nd freely and cheaply. But there are women's fights around shops daily in nearly every great German city, aud prices at restaurants continue to rise, the private motor-car has practically ceased owing to lack of rubber ; a* wooden tyre has replaced the rubber on commercial waggons. There is bitter complaint throughout the hand. Agriculturists arc making huge profits, the wealthy are regarded as specially privileged ; those with influence are counted as lucky, because they manage to get plenty of bread. We may never be able to starve out Germany. A nation at war can live on turnips and potatoes. But if we tightened the blockade, and especially if we kept out those vast quantities of American grain aud oil going in through Scandinavia, wo can considerably increase the pressure, and we may some day bo actually able to prevent her from making shells in sudh huge quantities as she now produces. Aud whether we succeed in this or not, we have this consolation, that the blockade, in its main purpose of destroyiug Germany's external trade, is irresistible. It is a power we can maintain for ever if need bo. We ca<*l hold her up. to ransom on the seas until she says, as she must say somo day, " I accept your terms." Whether that day comes years hence, when civilisation is wasted and Europe is in ruins, or comes within these next few months, depends upon that essential military backing, which in its turn depends upon the supply of stronglimbed, high-hearted men.