GERMAN CONTROL OF METALS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 46, 19 November 1918, Page 5

GERMAN CONTROL OF METALS

DESTRUCTION IN AUSTRALIA MR; HUGHES AND"MERTON'S" Mr. Hughes was the principal speaker on September 3 at a groat meeting hold v.i tho Drill Hall, Derby, and organised by tha Merchant Seamen's League for tho purpnso of protesting against German atrocities on the high seas. In the course of his speech Mr! Hughes referred lo the German metal octopus. He said: .1 havo spoken of Mertons—that German firm with an English Homeland I shall continue to speak of this firm, and othcirs of which it is a type, until they an; driven out of Britain and their influeiico -for evil destroyed root and branch. I shall speak of them to-night, but before doing so first let me tell you what we have done in Austral in—not talked of doing, mark you., but. actually done, to rid'ourselves of the. enemy within our gates and,to destroy his inflnenco in our national and economiolife. Wo have annulled, all contracts with enemy subjects. We have practically swept clean the share, registers of our companies of German shareholders. We linvo not only handed their 6hares lo the Public Trustee, but these 1 have been sold lb British-ton subjects. We havo interned the naturalised German managers of the great metal octopus. We havo prohibited enemy aliens from dealing in land'fir acquiring shares in, milling companies, or obtaining leases. Australia is a great metal-producing centre, and before; the Avar the German control over our metal was complete. Well,' we have changed all that. We have established a Metal Exchange, and. all members must be natural-born British subjects. And we have nbt stbpped here. Having destroyed the influence of Germany in our economic life', we went' farther a.nd prohibited, his interference in oltr political and national life. Believing that "Once a German, always a German,'' we have taken away the franchise, not finly from the naturalised German, but also—at the last referendum—from the first generation of 1 those born of German parents, in Australia, for from experience at elections since the war wo found that the German, naturalJborn, as well as naturalised, went Umbst solidly against the National Party-men and women of all political parties. Labour and other who' put the wair first, and all other'things after. So when I urge yon here to take action against tho enemy in our midst, I only ask you to do that which Australia has done long ago. 1 urge you to follow their example, not only because it is vital to your interests, but because, unless youi do so, all that we have, done will be of no avail, 1 for if the heart of tho Empire be poisoned with German influence, how can the extremities of the Imperial body be clean? "The Metal Octopus." j Now let me come to Merton's. As I have said, in Australia we have completely destroyed the ' metal octopus. Every German has been removed from the share register. Its managers have been interned. But what has been done here? I take Merton's merely as an example to show yon that what has been done here is not enough, that unless more is, dbhe the passage of time will see German" control again-in our midst. What has-been dono here? After four years of war against Germany this German octopus in our midst, which has waxed fat on the war, which lias mode huge profits which will strengthen Germany's credit after the war, was a day or two ago refused a license to sell metals—that and nothing more. I will show you what this means later. Now what is Merton's ? Merton's is one of the'greatest agencies of the enemy within our gates; it is. tho great English branch of the most powerful trade organisation the world has ever seen. Its tentachfl are'in every quarter cf the earth; its heart isjn Frankfurt-ou-Main. It shelters itself evaj-ywhere outside Germany under the cloak of naturalisation, II; pretends tp be English, or American, or Australian' or South. African, or Swie», or .French, but. underneath this cunning disguise it '.is German lo the core: lo niakes' money for German financioi-H, throwing, it may lie, a few crumbs to those other nationalities as one.throws bones lo a dog. It works for the glorification of Germany, for the expansion <if Hie power of Germany. It is as much German as nre Ihe logions of Germany in tho fiejd, and very much more dangerous.

The story of the Morton family is the story of tlio v great Metall-gewllseliaft group, ' whicK during tlio hnlf-century before the war, was the menus of a'vnst system of inler-relnted companies, exlerfdinpf its octopus tentacles over the metal trois of tlio work!,, till it had a stranglehold in England, America, Australia, Africa, Russia. Italy, France, Switzerland, and Bolgium-iii fact, nil over; the civilised world—ovor output, prices, treatment, and marketing' of 'nil Hie (principal base metals. A series of great controlling and deyeloning companies in Germany evolved in 1910 into a great combination called; tlio Metallbanl; nnd Metallilrgische Gosellschaft, with -a ciinilml of 40,000.(100 marks, under the presidency of Dr. AVilholm Morton (the German brother of K. I?. Merlon, the. Englishman). The Mctallhanlc had large investments in nil lire original companies of the concern, and the Mertons. from headquarters in Frankfurt, pulled the strings' of the whole gronn. Then they pushed out their tentacles into the markets of the world. A great corporation was formed jn Pwilz»rlnnd, also under the presidency of Dr. Wilholm Merton. This camoiiflaged the outward appearance of tlio purely German natitro of the combination. This great tentacle has two names for use ill appropriate circumstances. It nnpoars sometimes ns Rchweizerischo Ge.scllsclinft fur Molalhverke nnd snrnn. tunes ns Sooieta Suisse pour-Valours <les' Melnux, but its directorate shows that whether lis name he French or German the control is purely German. Across Four Continents. Then the Merton octopus pushed Out a. tentacle acroi-3 the farthest ocean, and iormcd a wholly German company in Australia. They libelled it tlin Australian Metal Company. Tho German manager assumed the cloak of naturalisation, niid became a good Australian citizen. By all the devices of unfair competition it forced nearly all the Australian smelting companies to 6crap their Plant. It swallowed the industry, it dictated tho terms-upon which it should carry on. It was the' industry. Into the great Republic- of America. Hie Motallgesellschnft, Merlon's, under, another nnms, e.ttohded one of its most' powerful tentacles. Thev called it, of course, the American Metal Company. What thev did. in Australia and Britain and elsewhere they ' did in America. Mertons J. Frankfort held 41 per cent, of • the shares, Merton s, in London, held-. 27 per cent., and the balance was principally held by hyphenated Germans in,' America, with a spi'niKiing of bona fido American's who were put into tho very front of the shop window to deceive the people-of the Republic. Morton's of London were the agents of this enemy firm. They wro the agents during the three years of war beforo America.' came into the war. They sold metal to tho British Government (luring those threo years, upon which the. great German octopus made huge profits. • They shared those huge profits, they helped to bleed the British taxpayer. Yet in the fate of all these things' they still call themselves an English firm.

What they did in America, Australia, and Switzerland, they did in Africa, and in Britain _ They always curtninglv cloaked their German nationality anil true purpose by naturalisation'. In America they beca/no American; in Australia, Australian; hero in Britain, Brit- , ' ln , }, M l< Mian; in Russia, Russion. the list of the other Merton octopus or Metall»esellschaft concerns in trance, in Belgium, in Mexico, in Africa, all tentacles of the German octopus, and all contributing to the same German domination, is to largo for recital. They are part and parcel of the greatest German ' combination in existence. They are interlocked with a hundred companies in a hundred ways. To look at tho chart which set out the complex ramifications of their connections reminds 1 ono of a spider's web. They are linked up with banks, with great firms like Beer, Sondheimer, and Aron Hirsch and Co., and with them controlled tho lead, zinc, and copper markets of the world.