NEUTRAL PROFITEERS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 238, 2 July 1919, Page 9

NEUTRAL PROFITEERS

GAINERS Bl r THE WAR. (By Herbert Vivian in the "Daily Mail.") The war, like a long lawsuit, has broken all the litigants, but instead of going to. the lawyers the '.profits, have dropped into the pockets of neutral States who neither worked nor even talked for their refreshers. Amateur financiers are proposing to confiscate by taxing the whole of the legitimate profits made-by pur .traders and manufacturers, directly or indirectly, out of the war;.but. surely it is ■only fair to ask the onlookers to pay first for .the advantages, they have tierived from seeing inost of. the game. After all,, our profiteers were risking something. If wo had lost tho war, they would not only have been reduced to serfdom like every, body else, but also would have had to give- up their actual and' prospectivo profits as paTt. of the indemnity to Germany. Neutrals, of course, would have been tied to the German chariot wheels and would have: shared in tho general collapse of civilisation, and they may well bo asked to show their gratitude for their escape in a practical .way. But their inflated capital' would not have been threatened.

Having visited Scandinavia.; during the war, I may mention what happened in those typical neutral lands. At the outset every . possible thing, was feverishly iinported.from Englnnd aid America, not 1 for. tho lieods of the population, but to bo, exported at a huge profit to our enemies. And the. Scandinavian countries, being convinced that hostilities could not hst long, .deliberately denuded themselves of foodstuffs, raw'materials, and almost every necessary in order to make quick profits at the expense of the Allies. Diplomatists have told mo the war was thereby prolonged'for at least two years; so tho neutrals were.punished for their miscalculation after wo came to our senses and established a blockade.

They'were indeed a'.most like a starving man with a bag of diamonds in the desert. Never have T tasted anything quite so nasty or unsatisfying as the wood-pulp bread which was doled out with infinite reluctance in Sweden. There was no tea or colfee at. nil, and scarcely any cotton. A friend of miuo was glad to pay .£8 for a bottle of _ whisky at Haparnnda.'aud the simple life in hotels never cost me less'than <£40 a week.

Of course prices did not. matter at n.U to the natives, but they suffered real privations. Wood-choppers and street-sweep-ers received .'at least J212 a week. I heard of a page-boy at tlie Grand Hotel, Cliristiania, who rose to gambling in thousands on shipping shares. A brokerti clerk came for confirmation of a specially big deal and was told no one named Jansen was staying-there. ; Then the boy enmo forward and cried, "I am Mr. Jansen. This firm is acting for me."

It iuust.be remembered that the liuga freights of neutrals were only made possible by the sacrifices of tho British Navy. And.-if it be retorted that neutral profiteers cannot be made to pay, I suggest that an entrance feo can bo required for admission to tho Ixmguo of Nations.