PATRIOTIC EXHIBITION

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2705, 26 February 1916, Page 8

PATRIOTIC EXHIBITION

ANOTHER. CROWDED DAY

Bigger crowds than ever visited tlis exhibition of British-mado goods in t'he Town Hall yesterday. In the evening there was music which everybody heard, and there were speeches which comparatively few heard, so' liig were the crowds and so loud the din they made. The speakers were Mrs. A. R. Atkinson, Mr. John Payne; 11.P., and Mr. John Hutcheson.

Mrs. Atkinson spoke almost entirely of the necessity for thrift and for the curtailment, or complete stoppage, of all wasteful expenditure on selfish appetites or pleasures. By saving, wa would be helping the Empire, for tlic nation that would win in the war would be the one who could stay in it longest. Mrs. Atkinson also said that we could help the Empire by buying no goods produced outside the Empire, at least while the war lasts. For the first time in 100 years the balance of trade was against us, and the exchange rate with America against us. While this was so we should not buy any American goods, not so much as a "sixpenny novelty." Mr. J. Payne, while' approving the exhibition, said that,such efforts should not be necessary to induce British people to buy British goods. He devoted a' sreat deal of his spcech to the "All-for-Empire League," commending its aims heartily., and to the "Anti-German League," a women's organisation. Of this latter body, Mr. Payne approved, and_ especially he approved its agitation against persons of enemy alien origin or descent heing allowed to. sail with our forces. In this connection Mr. Payne expressed disgust with the Minister of Defence and the Chief of the General Staff. , . Mr. John Hutcheson's speech was a spirited denunciation of the Germans as they were in peace times, and of everything German. He declared that the world owed nothing to Germany, whereas Germany owed everything to Europe. Of all the great inventions that had revolutionised warfare and other things, Germany had discovered none, except the poison. (ApnlauseJ A Frenchman invented the internal combustion engine, which made aeroplanes and submarines possihle, and Germany exploited the engine. An American first built, a submersible ship, and Germany copied it and exploited it. Germany got her trade bv conying English goods, by spying on English traders to discover their methods and markets, and then by stealing their customers. After the war he believed there would be a Customs TJnion ; and in this connection he hoped the nolicy of the British would be like unto that Tevealed in the statement of bis order of favouritism bv a saflorman— I "Mess-mates, watch-mates, ship-mates, strangers." (Applause.)