TRADING WITH THE ENEMY

Taranaki Daily News, 4 December 1915, Page 3

TRADING WITH THE ENEMY

ATTITUDE TO GERMANY. PEELINGS IN WAll AND PEACE. AN INTERESTING ADDRESS. An interesting address on the subject ol trading with the enemy was delivered at the. quarterly meeting of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce last night by the President, Mr. W. J. Penn. In opening his address Mr. Penn said that the suggestion bad been made that it would add interest to the quarterly meetings of the Chamber if at each meeting a paper were read or an address given on some topical subject, to be followed by discussion and criticism.

''The subject I have, chosen," proceeded Mr. Penn, "is 'Trading with the Enemy,' especially after the war. I will confine myself to Germany, as the principal trader among the enemy nations, but my remarks will not apply solely to our Dominion, because it seems to me that when the war is over the question will have to be dealt with from an Imperial standpoint. The war has brought the component parts of the Empire into far closer touch and sympathy with -each other than ever they were, and I imagine that every effort will'be made at an Imperial Conference to arrive at a common policy in regard to commercial dealings with other countries, mora es-' pecially with our present enemies. That is to say if the United Kingdom decide! to continue its prohibition of trade with Germany I have little doubt that the .Dominions will agree to fall in line, or if the United Kingdom thinks fit to relax the prohibition, while treating our present Allies as favoured nations, the Dominions will probably adopt a similar attitude, though varying perhaps in degree of preference/ or penalty. "Trading with the enemy is' prohibited by law to-day, but the prohibition is not altogether effective, for one can still .buy German goods, which may or may not have been imported/since the prohibition was imposed. Sonie of these goods .are branded 'made /-a England,' but are none the less German. since they are made by German labour in factories owned wholly or in part by Germans, and it may be doubted whether the Imperial authorities have completely succeeded in preventing the profits' from reaching Germany, and being used for i the prosecution of the war against us. One lias but to keep one's eyes open to see that quite a large trade i 3 still being .done in German goods in this lonutry. If, then, it is so difficult to prevent, trading with the enemy while the war" continues and public resentment is at itsi height, how much more difficult will it. be to prevent it when peace is declared; and the German people endeavour toi reinstate themselves in our good graces.. And just here let me # remark that I< for one believe that there are Germans •who do not pray daily 'God Strafe England' but who lament tho war as much as we. do, though they dare not lift their voices against it. Most of'.us here probably, are acquainted with Oermans for whom we have the highest respect. Be that as it may, we shall have to decide when the war is over upon what terms we as a nation are going to live with the German nation. My own feeling now, and that of most British people, is that I have no wish to have any dealings whatever with Germany at any time. I would bar trading with Germany for all time in my present frame of mind, but I do not think that I am in a proper frame of mind to make a resolution binding me indefinitely. And that, I take it, is the position of the nation generally. For that reason, it seems to me wrong to say, as same people say, that we' must never trade with Germany again. A well-known writer, Mr. Ambrose Pratt, has sadd: 'Germany is fighting the world to-day with the money she won by commcrrce with her enemies—from us, by selling us her goods. And it is certain that if 'we again permit her to grow rich at our expense by trading with us she will ags.in try to accomplish our destruction.' If we subscribe to the theory that she is fighting to-day with the money she m axle by selling us her goods, then we nwst also agree that Germany by buying our goods has helped us to build iur NsiVy, the instrument which has proved tlie most powerful used on either side in this war. The trade* has been mutual, with profit to both parties, though there, are those who hold that it has been one-sided because Britain has bought more from Germany than Germany lias bught from her and has had to pay the balance in gold, which gold has been used to construct ships and guns and to train armies with which to fight lis. This is not a sound contention, but let us accept it for the sake of argument, and assume that aftfer the war the old relations are resumed: that we continue' to buy from Germany more than we sell, to her and pay the difference in gold. Iti will only be so because it suits us bestt to pay in gold. ''But how will it help Germany to prepare for another war? She cannot build ships and mould guns of gold. If, however, instead of gold she took steel plates from Sheffield, then we might be helping her to built up a great navy with which to dispute our supremacy of the seas, and at tho same time we should be reducing by so much our own capacity for building warships. It has been stated', that Germany is accumulating vast stocks of the products of her factories with which she will flood the world when the war is over, if permitted, and with the proceeds put in hand her military rehabilitation. 1 take leave to doubt that. During the last six months the vast bulk of her adult male population, has been fully occupied in either fighting or providing and transporting supplies, for the fighting forces, so that it is impossible that her factories (except those manufacturing military supplies) have been working normally and accumulating stocks. Moreover, the raw material required in industries—metals for instance—has been drawn upon to the utmost for war purposes. Nor can I believe that when peace is restored German industries will be ablo to resume on tho old scale or anything approach-ing-.it. There will be the ravages of war to be repaired and it will be mail}' years .before her human resources will be restored to the pre-war standard. In the meantime the United States and Japan, and in a lesser degree Great Britain and France, are establishing themselves firmly in the markets which Germany used to supply. For the reasons stated, it will be gathered, I dissent altogether from the theory that Germany, if permitted to resume trading on the old terms, will at once commence to reconstruct her war machinery with the idea of having her revenge.as soon as she can get ready. Now let me suggest another line of thought. Suppose Germany is ;bent uDon;ievense of her gTTg,

volition the isolation it is claimed w® should force upon licr. She is fairly self-contained and may close her doors and behind them devote her entire energies to building up afresh her armies and her arms. Instead of trying to become the workshop of the world by carrying on hundreds of industries and exporting their products, she may turn all her attention to manufacturing warships, guns, ammunition, and all sorts of military applies, at the same timo developing her agricultural and pastoral resources to the utmost so as to bo independent of imported food supplies Would she not in that way sooner be in 1 a position to seek her revenge than if a large proportion of her people were engaged in manufacturing for other countries? Still pursuing this line of thought, if Germany left the markets of. the world for lis to supply, should not we be so much the less able to make preparations to fight her again t There is yet another aspect of tho question to which brief reference must be made. It is assumed that we shall demand an indemnity as a condition of peace. How is that indemnity to bo paid if not in kind? I confess 1 cannot tell. Gold will not go far towards it. "In conclusion let me say that the thoughts I have expressed must not b» taken as my matured and unalterable opinions., I li-ive raised questions for discussion and it is only by discussion and by interchange of opinions that wo can hope to arrive at sound conclusions, and in this matter of our future relations with Germany it is of the utmost importance that our policy shall bo sound. The influence of this Chamber in a matter of Imperial policy may bo a negligible quantity, but public opinion is the aggregation of individual opinion and it should be our aim to form within our limits a sound public opinion."

THE DISCUSSION. Mr. F. S. Johns thought that apart from the moral aspect New Zealand could not afford to do without the trade of Germany. Mr. M. Eraser said that if we sank all the present feelings we should, after the war, act fairly to Germany and expect the country to act fairly towards us. We should work on the prin. iple thah they should deal fairly with us in trade, and if they did that we should trade with them. Mr. S. Shaw said that if all the Allies decided not to trade with Germany, Germany's market* would be verv limited. The danger would be with neutral countries. Circulars had already been received from Sweden giving particulars ol new manufactures, and there was no doubt that a great many of thesu articles were of German manufacture,. The present feeling of everyone was that they did not want to touch anything Mr. .T. D. Sole saM he wa* quite satiafield that a tremendous lot of stuff now coming .into New Zealand branded as made in neutral countries were manufactured by the Germans. Japan and other countries were replacing German goods, and Japan was putting , fancy goods and drapery on the market to-dav with which no other country could compete. China was also manufacturing a quality of drapery which had' come to stay. It was too soon, however, to discuss what attitude should be adopted after the war.

The President thought it decidedlv wrong that Neiv Zealand shipping companies should bring good* from German* at a cheaper rate than they charged Foi goods coming from Britain. T'hotv was no doubt that this had bei'n Jane befora the war. i

Mr. Shaw agreed with tlie British spirit expressed bv Mr. Vraw to treat the Germans fairly, hut in the past, while We had treated Germany fairly '■she had not treated us in the same wayj Germany had cheaper freights and other advantages, and the result was that, she ' had been able to accumulate the money with which she was now fighting us. Mr. Johns said it was only competition which brought English manufacturers into line. He thought the opinion should be expressed that we should trade with Germany after the war on fair terms, and he thought we could not economically afford to do otherwise. Mr. C. H. Burgess said Britain had to wake up and not carry on its trade in the way it had been doing when the war started. English firms, expected customers to take what was offered to them, and still stuck to their eonser. vativc methods.

The President said the feelings which animated people to-day should not bo allowed to influence them after the war, and he thought it would be wrong to rush into a prohibitive tariff ".gainst German goods at the conclusion nf tlia struggle. This concluded the discussion.