OUSTING THE GERMANS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 February 1916, Page 7

OUSTING THE GERMANS.

NO MORE GERMAN TOYS. London, December 15. Although great success has attended British efforts to capture the German trade in toys and fancy goods, merchant* here take the view that there must bo a tariff against German goods. A leading firm writes:— "Our view is that our only salvation is to have a tariff of, say, nothing less than 33 1-3 per cent, to 50 per cent, duty on all German imports. Had this been done years ago there is no manner of doubt that this barbarous war, preparations for which have been in progress for over forty yeara, would never have occurred. We can positively assert that German hand-bags made in thrt' district of Frankfurt-am-Main have been imported during this year from America, at even a lower rate than we were able to purchase them from that district before the war. We have been most successful in the manufacture of Noah's arks since the beginning of the war. We have been equally successful in the manufacture of A.B.C. blocks, puzzles, .picture cubes, parlor games, clockwork railways and clockwork running toys. Even teddy hears, golliwogs and printing sets have improved, and are being offered at an extremely moderate figure. There is no doubt tlmt even at the end of the War Germany will always remain the 'firebrand' of Europe, waiting for the next opportunity. It is common knowledge that even now she has arranged with Austria a kind of Central Customs Union. This we must arrange in this country and form in the same manner a quadruple alliance with our Allies, which will mean a commercial .blockade of Germanv."