U.S. TRADE & WAR

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2355, 11 January 1915, Page 9

U.S. TRADE & WAR

AMERICAN EXPERT'S VIEWS HARDSHIPS OF DETENTION & SEARCH , (By William Archer, in tie "Daily. News.") It is quite possible that the warmth of my own feeling towards America renders, me unduly nervous as to any misunderstandings that may arise between England and her sister democracy out of the difficult conditions forced upon both countries by the war. Consequently I lose no opportunity of questioning American friends as to the true state of feeling on tho other side. Most of their reports are reassuring; but it is clear that the immediate future is not without its dangers, some of which are indicated in a talk I had the other way, with an old friend who, having just arrived from New York, iB in a position to estimate very accurately fhe latest phase of American feeling. "I am," he said, "like tfio bulk of my countrymen, a thoroughly biassed partisan of the Allies' cause; but it is a serious question, to my mind ; how far Great Britain can profitably hinder and hamper American trade by search for contraband and other war measures. "There is no question that the vast majority of Americans, including the American Press, are very like the Irishman who said 'Shure, I'm as neutral as li 1! I don't oare who beats the Germans!' In moving-pioture shows, scenes of German action and portraits of the Kaiser are received ill silence, while anything touching the Allies is applauded. At the recent annual meeting of the American Bar Association, a distinguished Canadian lawyer, addressing 800 of the leading lawyers of the United States and Canada, opened by saying that it was a distinct pleasure to be in a really neutral country, and went on to explain that be felt confident that whether it was the Russians, the Servians, the French or even the British —it really made no difference in American who it was that put a stop to German aggression. He was greeted with amused chuckles of laughter, followed by loud and long applause. Now it seems to me that BUch a condition of popular feeling constitutes a tangible and valuable _ asset, which Great Britain would be wise not to imperil , even at the expense of some apparent sacrifice." A Restraint on Trade. "Then you think it is being imperilled ?" "I won't go so far as that, but I can't help seeing rocks ahead. War is war, and is waged through all phases of life, beginning with military operations, and extending into the fieldß of finance and commerce. This is appreciated in general, to a surprising degree, by American business men, who— if silence means consent—have as yet acquiesced in every restraint, on their trade imposed by the exigencies of Britain's vital needs. For three months they have been gazing at tho cataclysm in Europe, in somewhat breathless wonder, but also sympathetically. 'Meanwhile their main efforts have been directed to meeting tho prassure of tho local and domestic situation. wbich in the first days of tho war was acute. That phase is now passing. Vast quantities of raw and manufactured products are accumulating, while their normal outlets are blocked. £ great flood is being dammed. Do you realise that more than £600,000,000 ofAmerican exports would normally be seeking their markets in the next twelve months ? "I don't say that she is exceeding her rights; I don't say that she is doing any more than the United States would probably do in her place. I believe that your statesmen have every wish to aot not' only legally, but considerately; but I doubt; whether the average mazy and more particularly the average minor official, clearly oonceivos-the magnitude of the interests at stake, and the complexity of the problems." "Could you give me an in stance P" "Well, do you know how muoh depended on the question whether cotton was or was -not. to be declared contraband? That question, thank heaven, has been settled, the provision of the Declaration of London, of 1909 has been confirmed, and cotton remains on tho non-contraband list. Copper, too, has been defined; it is absolute contraband. That is something, for the merchant hates nothing so much as uncertainty. But So you know that while the fate of cotton hung in the balance, there hung with it the fate of the colossal copper-mining industries and tho vast spinning interests of the United States? A Delicate Question. "Apparently, until the United States could undertako to supply her with, raw cotton, Germany put an embargo upon cyanide—the basis of the cyanide process applies to all copper and preciousmetal mining—as well as on the dyestuffs of which also she has a practical monopoly. And though the cotton danger lias been averted, the question of contraband continues to be one of oxcessive delicacy. It is simplified to some extent by our pathetic lack of a merchant marine, so that seizures on tho high seas are of necessity confined to vessels flying foreign flngs._ Fortunately, too, one of tho most important American cargoes sunk at sea was an immense consignment of coffee bound from Rio to New York, and the offending cruiser was not British, but German. But though our amour propre may suffer less from the detention of ships ■ under a foreign flag, our interests are no less adversely affected by any unreasonable detention of foreign ships carrying American goods. For 1 instance, one hears of boats of the Hol-land-Amerika Line being seized, not once, but three or four times " "How do you mean 'seized'?" "I mean compelled to come in first, say, to Qucenstown, then again to Plymouth, and then, porhaps, .to Dover, and in. each case detained several days while their cargo is being overhauled. I have heard of boats scheduled for a ten-days' passage taking a month be- : tweon New York and Rotterdam —or 1 other neutral ports—under which condiI tions they might as well go out of business. "American merchants are now recovering from the paralysis which the war at first produced, and are beginning to take stock, and, as wo say, 'see whore they are at.' Already the Press contains references to the war of 1812, which was fought over the right of search of American vessels on tho higli seas. It would not take much to make many Americans, however well disposed, feel that Great Britain was once 'more using her sea power in an unjustifiably high-handed way; and it seems to me that, in order to give no ground for that impression, it might bo, well worth while occasionally to waive 1 tho strict letter of tho law. I cannot but think that it is not the least of , England's interests to retain American | sympathy, not only with a view to pre--3 sent exigencies, but for the sake of the future. If the Allies win, England and j America are bound to come into muoh | closer contact than that of to-day, because America, instead of Germany, will be England's rival in world-com-merce. Is it not vastly important that ] that rivalry should bo a thoroughly I friendly one ?"