The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1918. ECONOMIC PRESSURE ON GERMANY.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 January 1918, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1918. ECONOMIC PRESSURE ON GERMANY.

J To ascertain Germany's meat vulnerable L.point we have not to examine her rniliI tary strength, bat her economic. Ifl so • doing it will be apparent that a considerable light is thrown on the desperate .efforts Germany is mnJting to bring 'about a cessation of hostilities on termsthat are becoming increasingly broader. ' We have become accustomed to the misleading boasts of her military leaders, I issued for popular consumption, but be- | nag little More than high sounding phrases calculated to earn ga&ery ap- > plause and to minimise the eti'ect of that depression which is inevitably settling' down over the whole country. K was ►only recently that the Hamburg Freindenblatt stated that Germany must not' . (surrender her island possessions, but rather increase them so as to ensure the ! ssupply of enormous quantities of valu- ' able raw material. The German Iron . and Steel Associates demands the an- ' nexation of the French i*e» region, bej Germany's iron may be exhausted (in four or five generations. If the position is probed sufficiently deep it i will be seen that German military vie- [ tories will profit her nothing if her economical structure is laid low and her supplies of raw material cut off. Knowi, king-this to be her weakeat point it is for the Allies to attack it strenuously and -thoroughly. Germany lias (lone her best ? <to hide anxiety on this point and to *keep the truth from tiie world. This , of itself denotes that she is conscious of her weakness and' ftlive to the fact that ; every fresh nation that sides with the Allies me: "s another nail in her economic coffin and increased alar us, at the prospect of further supplies of raw ma- ■ terial being cut off. There is no ques- ' >fcon that a great change has ooeurrei; •in the minds of the thinking peaple ofj fCermscy concerning the e«oi»H»ic fctems of the future. Proof of this ifl i afforded ia the owaplete disillusionment Hof Br. Friedrich Naumann, the author ofi B>the famous book "Middte Europe," rn B -which Central Euiape was iescjibed as a I .perfectly self-ceßtained and self-support-I "ing economic entity, but he n®w sees : clearly enough that the Afllies have the j power to withhold from Germany i«Kumerable materials vitally necessary to er economic welfare, There is also the fact tliat Hiore tlmn one half of the j 'trade of the fierman E«pwe is at the | mercy of the Allies. Germany is now ,»ble to point to tiie map avid boast of |'the territory occupied in the various j war theatres, but with the exception of

K l the'Roumanian ot-lfcftelds. there -is little to '' show for the enormous price paid for juriutt she wtoUe her methods »of conducting the war ha-ve aroused such lf«rious indignation and hatred that if S >Jeft to the initiative of individuals, prob- | ably no British skip would, for a long i time to come cawy a German passenger, L sao British hotel would admit a German I ' visitor, no British shop of repute would p buy German goods or sell to German p 'customers, and the British example would be copied l>y other nations. The | dever which the Allies now hold can be is effectively used to shorten the war, and [ ' though an eflwtamic boycott is a drastic ,measure Unfits ia with the just needs oil Stfae case. Knowing tie {acts it is foi Ithe Allies to aofc thereon. They should >make it clear to Germany tkat insteai "of getting better terms by prolongm; [the 'war jebe wiliwget worse aad feat tin gesew will be progressively tightened fo: every month that the war is prolenged Itflfflwiwny should- also be told h'.iintt; that the Allies know her weak po:.)» >and»have tlie power to stifle htr futur -growth, also that this power w4« b leawttised remorselessly if Germany per ,gtete in (continuing this -brutal aid rii'm leu&war. R is-psobabte Germany im@k ireply that she was just as aasfious t<

%eudtho_vrar as we*c the Entente Sowers. this lii-' -viavwr must surety ba thereanust '*® ' ceatrol 0W | !^j e it— (iovenuMKt—in otitoer I v.ca' , !«' must be etenraeratwcd * Leu •« p- (rusted by toe AWiea. S \ -od upwi av lw of aB L - '• boycott and on a - tk»»cnf It wouta*

a^euse, i'ue G«a»aaan people to a sense of 1 jtlu'ir danger. TJie uuc«w. there are sawd to talliterally sitmuig, and. aeffcitnliiig to the VorwaerUi these may be absolute cataKtruph.i in Germany 'within a month, rosultiii},' in the defeat of Germany in the war. The time aj>,peats to--be particularly appropriate for wotking the lever whieh Uic Allies possess. The submarine campaign, which tfias so completely failed in its object, i : has brougkt America into the field •against Germany, and if America joined in the economic boycott, the future o£■Germany would be hopeless. The S-weapou is reatW for use, and though it may be double edged it would pay to swield it with the utmost passible force.