SWITZERLAND IN WAR TIME

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 5727, 2 October 1914, Page 4

SWITZERLAND IN WAR TIME

Mrs Julian Grande, writing from Berne, to the Christchurch Press, says:

I doubt whether, even in Berlin, the effects of a European war and the threat of such a war can have made themselves more markedly felt than in the Swiss capital. Switzerland is the heart of Europe, and Berne is the heart of Switzerland. Eet New Zealanders imagine their country entirely surrounded, not by the sea, but by four Great Powers, one of whom, at any rate, is constantly tiying, by all manner of deft and insidious means, to extend a powerful eagle's claws over it. Let them realise the situation of a country which has no coast and no seaport, and which, therefre, cannot import food except by permission of one of her neighbours, who may demand for this service a quid pro quo which can scarcely be granted consistently with national independence, or with the neutrality which to the Swiss means their very existence. Let it l»e further realised that though Switzerland is not on the direct highway between Germany and France, that is. between Berlin and Paris, she is on the direct route between Germany and Italy, and if France wishes speedily to reach a certain portion of Germany she would cut olf u great deal and save much time by goit:g through Swiss territory.

Yet again, in order to fully understand what even the menace of European war has meant to Switzerland,it must be borne in mind that she does no produce any coal worth mentioning; that she cannot grow enough grain nor rear enough cattle for her own needs, and that she is one of the countries which depend to the largest extent upon manufactures. It is claimed, indeed, that the value of her exports of manufactured goods per head exceeds that of the manufactured goods of any other land. It is the greatest mistake to consider her merely as a tourist country. In order to carry on these manufactures, however, she requires raw mateiial, which she must he able to import, for it is not produced locally. Consider, now, what war means to her. First, a war breaking out at the end of July entails the ruin of her summer season. The sum of £32,000,000 or more, it is estimated, is invested in Swiss hotels [and the hotel-keeping industry, and how can this capital pay any interest when the summer season is cut asunder, as it were? Secondly, some of the manufactures in which the Swiss most exce', such as clocks and watches of delicate workmanship, embroideries, and chocolate, are, if not precisely luxuries, nevertheless, things which everyone, when short of money, does without. Only a few days after the outbreak of war between Servia and Austria, the Swiss chocolate factories had begun to work short time, owing to lack of sugar, which is usually procured through Austria; and very shortly afterwards the embroidery manufacturers were dismissing their hands in large numbers, and they are now discussing the desirability of the temporary closing of their works. Outside Europe, tough the money market may be "tight" at present, many businesses injuriously affected and none improved, there cannot possibly be anything like the universal distress, the complete upheaval in everyone's daily life, caused in a country such as Switzerland, ami, indeed, in every European country actually at war, or whose frontiers adjoin those of belligerent I'owers."