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Taihape Daily Times, Issue 219, 8 January 1917, Page 3

ment for an enormous amount of sea-

borne traffic. German export and import houses, and German banks were the mainspring of Rotterdam’s existence and welfare. That the bulk of the community 's sympathies should be proGerman seems to be under the circumstances not unnatural” HOLLAND AND AN OLD CUSTOMER. “We believe it to be a good business maxim that old customers should not be let down,’’ says the Morning Post. “But that as we are bound to say, is exactly what Holland has done for England since the war began. For many years she had enjoyed the freedom of the British market and had supplied us with enormous quantities of bacon, cheese, butter, and eggs at profitable prices, to the injury of British and Irish agriculture. “When the war broke out she was offered speculative prices by Germany, and diverted her whole supply to that market. In other words, she let down her old customer. In the desire for a large immediate profit, she forgot the value of business connections; she cut the British market right out of consideration and devoted herself almost entirely to the task of feeding Germany. “The British are a patient and a long-suffering people; but there is a point at which they turn. And it may be that after the war the Dutch may find they have made a mistake in deserting an old customer. “The policy of home production will help to secure us from famine in war, and will also help to employ the superfluity of labour in peace. It will keep up wages, and will form a nursery for the future of the race, for the sturdiest nation is that which has a flourishing agriculture.

“That is the lesson we learn from the desertion of our old business friend Holland. We shall have to be able to do without Dutch butter, Dutch bacon, and Dutch cheese. If they cannot supply us in war they shall net supply us in peace.” GERMAN DOUBT'S OF DENMARK. “Danish merchants have lately been receiving from their commercial connections in Germany letters expressing the fear that Germany will be deceived by Denmark as she was by Romnania, and adding that owing to reports as to Denmark’s attitude the firms in question must deposit payment in advance at a German bank for desired goods,” says the Morning Post Copenhagen correspondent. “The Government paper Politiken, advises Danish merchants, in replying, to emphasise the fact that no reason exists for comparing Denmark and Roumania, as the whole Danish people, without regard to party, are united in demanding that Danish neutrality shall be maintained. These re-

ports of a change in Denmark’s attitude, the Politiken adds, are probably due to the effects of certain parties to cause a change of Ministry.” German papers are complaining of the publication by Norway’s papers of details of German cruelty in Belgium.