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Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 11, 28 January 1905, Page 5

An Australian in London writes of the German invasion : London is full of middlemen—crammed full of him. Sometimes he is English, but most of him is German. Germane are everywhere. In the streets abutting on the sacred West, the stranger hears more German spoken than English. London is gradually becoming a suburb of Berlin. Nearly all the Christmas cards, the picture postcards, show-cards, and posters about London are printed in Germany. A middleman I met, who does a big business in the London dress trade, represents ten manufacturing houses ; two are English, tbe rest are French and German—six are German. I have just seen a quantity of shirtings going to. Australia. The stuff is supposed to - come from Manchester. It doesn’t. Went to see a piano manufacturer ir the City Road about a light, portable pianette for the Australian back country; he could not do it even at the price Australia pays for a first-grade, full sized German piano. Here, at haphazard, I write an occasional letter in the office of a man I know.. He Las been in business eighteen months, and he is making £lOOO a year, taking orders for printing at a i little below English prices, and getting the work done in Germany. Next door a German is selling artificial flowers made in Germany ; on the floor above, an Englishman is selling German felt hats ; on the floor below three Germans represent German ribbons, boots, and flannel suitings. The winter has come suddenly and sharply. There are 9000 more people getting outdoor relief than there were this time last year. Free-trade is all right—for the other nation.