THE GERMAN MENACE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 6 March 1913, Page 3

THE GERMAN MENACE.

i Sir,—Jt would be very interesting to myself, and probably to many of your readers, to know the amount of imports in the Dominion of goods, "Made in Germany," whether labelled as such or-not, and it would: no doubt astonish not a few to find, how we are enabling that astute general, the Kaiser, to lay down keel for keel with the Sovereign of the Seas; and perhaps go one better on the quiet. We have seen, by the evidence given at the Imperial Trade Commission, how Continental goods are favoured by the direct liners trading to our ports in the cheaper freights as compared with goods made in Britain. Xo doubt when our Dreadnought, H.M.S. New Zealand, visits our ports, she will receive a royal welcome at each place s he touches, and rightly so; but how small' we .should.- feel if she were followed by a bigger' ship, flying the German eagle, which would also be built with New Zealand money representing the purchases by residents of tin's Dominion of goods made under that flag. It is not uncommon in this, and probably other districts, to find paddocks fenced in with German wire, top-dressed with basic slag made in Germany, the cheese crates nailed and wired up with goods also made in Germany. The cheese is then shipped for British workmen to consume. Think'of the irony of it! The Kaiser has given it forth that the flag (German) shall follow the trade, and it will be the fault of the population of this Dominion if ever such happens. I say, to obviate such a thing happening, let one and all, instead of allowing our patriotism to end with shouting, "Britannia rules the waves," cany it further, and have all goods that we use in our homes, work-shops, or farms at least made in the Empire on which the "sun never sets." My object in penning these lines is to show the uselessness of our being taxed to maintain the Empire's supremacy of the seas, while we are assisting another nation to go one better by purchasing its manufactures. These may be cheaper, but in my opinion they are inferior to those made in Great Britain.—l am, etc., BRITISH SAILOR. , Master-ton. March 5, 1913. (The official Year-Book shows that in the year 1911, the imports from Germany were valued at £480,617. Of tin's amount. German goods to the value of £208.1.03 were imported free of dutv. —Ed Age.)