THE TRADE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 August 1919, Page 9

THE TRADE WAR.

HUN PREPAREDNESS. (By Canon J. T. Parfit, in London Daily Mail.) A stay m Cologne, as the guest of a. gonial Irishman in a, German chateau, with the privilege of lecturing to our troops, was an offer too tempting to hi refused. So on my way to the East I passed through tho Western battlefields lodgod with Erin on the Rhine, motored over the greater part of the occupied area, and caught a glimpse of Germany as she is to-day—badly bruised but convalescent, slightly hungry but smartly dressed, with more pride than penitence in her pallid smiles, and with head erect. Germany stands to-day better prepared.than her neighbours for the next great war. It will be conducted by her manufacturers and merchants, who -will strive to recover their lmukets and regain for Germany the markets of the world. They understand economy; their discarded weapons will be melted down into; new moulds, they will tarn their swords into ploughshares, they will waste neither material nor time; tor, while the victors are moulding a new world and solving the problems of the peopies, the Germans are busily moulding their merchandise, planning their programmes, and forging a new equipment for tho struggle that no power on earth ran restrain when the signing of peace sets their peoples free. I believo there are many in Germaiiy whose view of tho war was voiced by one of their number in Cologne. "We .smashed the Russians and we heat the KngSish and the French, but when America came in we feared we should have to give in, yet we were doing so well on sea and land that we might still have won if our sailors had not revolted. Democracy has ruined us; the people of Germany were poor until the Hohenzollcrns made them rich, but Democracy has made us poor again; they day the Hohenzollerns will return; tlioy will avoid the blunders of the past, and will make us rich again. STILL EFFICIENT. Whatever tho Germans have lost, their efficiency remains. Their factories are intact, their mines are in order, their spacious bridges and excellent roads are in good repair, their transport system surpasses oven the improvements foreshadowed in our new Transport Bill; and" the whole of Germany's equipment is thoroughly up-to-date, for she is hampered only here and there by the lack of a few essential commodities. Beyond her frontiers, however, are the desolated areas of France and Belgium that bear unmistakable evidence of Germany's deliberate intent to render her neighbours impotent for 30 years. She prepared for the next war before .she left Flanders, and every blow at her enemies' industries was delivered, "according to plan." She would like us to believe that this orgy of destruction was only an unfortunate feature of the last war; but not a bit of it—this phase of her retreat was her Hunnish way of preparing for tho next war by which she would heavily handicap her rivals and obtain an advantage in the commercial world almost equivalent to a military triumph. She naively offers to restore Belgium, but it will tako her 30 years to do it, and meanwhile sho will capture Belgium's trade and pay for Belgium's bridges by the profits derived from Belgium's customers. " The. terms of peace are just, for they have disappointed Germany's cunning hopes; they recognise her ability to pay, and what Germany is asked to pay is, after all, but a paltry fraction of tho debt she owes humanity for the ghastly crimes that can never be expiated and tho desolation that can never bo restored. Among tho Continental nations it is certainly not Germany that will stand in need of sympathy or aid when the peaeo is signed and tho blockade raised; she is quite capable and fully prepared to "take care of herself. PRODUCTION AND TRANSPORT. The Cologne express is obliged to travel somewhat loisurely to the German frontier, as so few lines are available on account of tho jriany broken bridges, and even theso few lines are badly in need of repair. They are congested with traffic; the trains aro overcrowded, and the weariness of the staff seems to reflect something of the heavy strain of a long war. At the German frontier, however, there is a sudden and, notable change when the well-clad officials quickly and smartly take ch'argo of the express, attach the German engines, and promptly send you off at the speed of a Midland special over their _ well-laid track till you reach your destination in the very nick of time. One passes through T)uren, whose factories havo kept Berlin, Sofia, ' and Stamboul supplied with admirable paper substitutes for table-cloths, underclothing, men's coats, and women's di esses of various patterns and delicate hues. W ; e visited Solingen, the German Sheffield, where every factory is forging ahead with an evident determination to defy its competitors in the available markets of the world. No military triumph, no terms of peace, can eliminate legitimate German competition or destroy Gorman efficiency. They must bo quickly and seriously reckoned with, for a world at peace will harbour few scruples about the purchase of pruning liooks or well-made pianos that will pour from German fac tories. It must be borne in mind that Germany is comparatively near to the great markets of tho East. She has deepened, her canals, and will bo in it position to develop cheap and rapid transport from the producers on the Rhine to the purchasers in the East, There is no shortage of river craft on her wonderful waterways, and her \e.viathan barges on tho Rhine must facilitate the distribution, from tho vast surface mines near Cologne, of her lignite briquettes still moulded to produce the fiery curse of "Gott strafe England" on every kilo of Gorman fuel. The German railways aro planned to perfection with switchback sidings for rapid shunting. Her light railways run everywhere along tho side, of her broad country roads, and her magnificent system of electric tramway cars with three or four trailers, and frequently with goods trucks, pass through the streets of cities to remote villages and far distant factories over

linos that are connected up with every railway track, giving her the maximum advantages for transport with the minimum expenditure. MECHANICAL DOMESTIC HELP. Germany has emulated America in her readiness to adopt every useful modern invention. Her water-carts sweep while they sprinkle the roads, her wind-protected dust-carts collect from every house every day; her vacuum cleaners arrive at your door in small motors, the engine is started, and with lengthy tubes the dust is dragged through your carpets and carried oil' unseen from every nook and coiner oi your dwelling. There, is central heating lin all the better-class houses, with hot and cold water in every bedroom, and often a luminous bathroom attached, while electric switches and mysterious locks will control all kinds of intelligent movements with tho aid of the hidden hand. The railway stations are orderly, the hotels are comfortable, the restaurants and caves are not insanitary, for there is a scrupulously cleanliness maintained in Germany, which is lamentably lacking j in so many Continental towns. But the Hun is a Hun for all that, and his less prosperous neighbours can giro him points as to the kind of behaviour that becomelh a gentleman. He sanctions an unveiling profligacy that is not to be met with elsewhere, and he treats his women as inferiors, who are born to yield service and pleasure to the lords of creatiou. In a crowded tra.mway car one day my English companion rose to giva his seat to a tired matron, when a sleek Hun slipped into it before tho woman could sit down. On the following day tho same thing happened when a British officer offered bis seat to a lady, but this time the astonished Hun was immediately hauled out, and a brief lessen on Kulfur was delivered in unprintable English, which every German present understood. German Kultur is very thorough—the good, the bad, and the indifferent; let us hope for the sake oi humaiiity that only tho Vst will survive.