AFTER WAR TRADE

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13489, 21 May 1917, Page 5

AFTER WAR TRADE

GERMANY RAPIDLY REALISING HER POSITION. THE REAL IMPORTANCE OF THE IMPERIAL CONFERENCE. MOST FAVOURED TREATMENT THROUGHOUT BRITISH EMPIRE MUST BE EXTORTED. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. Received May 20, 5.5 p.m. LONDON, May 19. The big industrial paper Rheinisch Westfaelische Zeitung, issued in Essen, publishes an article showing the further spread of the scare regarding after-war trade which was started in the German banking press, including the Berliner Tageblatt, Lokalanzeiger, and Frankfurter Zeitung. It seems that there is a deliberate intention to prepare the German nation for the surrender of all political claims if only peace is obtainable on pre-war trade conditions. The article especially expresses apprehension regarding the effects of the Imperial Conference, which it dreads far more than the Paris Conference. It says that the establishment of an Imperial Customs Union would be a matter of extreme gravity for Germany, as it would by its weight draw a number of smaller States into its orbit, and this would be intensified a thousand-fold if America joins with a view to defeating German supremacy in trade and establishing Anglo-Saxon world domination. The Westfaelische article concludes: "We will have shortly to face the most disagreeable facts. We can only gradually repair our pre-war position in the world's market, but the conditions of peace offer our lirst opportunity. Unless, however, we succeed in extorting from England absolutely unrestricted and most favoured nation treatment throughout the British Empire, we can see our hands being forcibly tied in other directions by those who take their political and commercial cue from her. Our foreign trade must inevitably lag behind that of the Powers who are now preparing by drawing closer bonds uniting them to conquer us in the, coming trade war."