GERMAN POST-WAR PLANS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 23 March 1917, Page 6

GERMAN POST-WAR PLANS.

Before leaving America to return — very temporarily, as it proved —to his post as United States Ambassador to Germany. Mr Gerard was entertained at a dinner in New York, and in the course of his speech made an important statement respecting the post-bellum plans of Germany. He' said: “In Germany, after the war, probably no one -will be permitted to purchase anything made outside Germany. There will be, in all probability, a central buying committee, which will do the purchasing from foreign countries for the Empire. This will permit the Gormans to enter the market in a position to say to a certain extent rvhat prices they will pay for that which they wish to purchase. Before the war, a friend of mine, a German manufacturer, said to me: ‘We can combine here to buy copper from you, but you can’t combine to sell it to us. 7 Now, if our peace and prosper ty are to continue commercially, perir .ssion to combine for the foreign ex rt trade should be given. There is a I 11, known as the Webb Bill, wdrich will r ri’ord some assistance to 'American expr "tens. The Ambassador said he thought in every foreign, nation after the war there v-o-v bo similar central bodies for commprc’al protection, and Iq. reap comrprl advantages, and “those arc the ■aaattera v.c have to meet.”