THE LANDINGS 127 



steam trawler and drifter, and becoming a 

 rival to the British in supplying the needs 

 of Germany. There is little doubt that 

 refusal by us to trade with Germany after 

 the war would materially assist the Danes. 

 The numerous small inlets on the Danish 

 coasts, often running inland for many miles, 

 are the nursery, but not the breeding- 

 ground, for immature fish. On both the 

 Baltic and the North Sea side there are 

 millions of small plaice, flounders, soles, 

 eels, and herrings, a large quantity of which 

 are exported to Germany and England. 

 There is plenty of evidence of the destruc- 

 tion of small valueless fish, although the 

 authorities are doing their best to reduce 

 the evil. An international arrangement 

 might be made whereby the Danish fisher- 

 men could be paid well to convey these 

 small fish to the North Sea banks, where 

 they might be transplanted, to be trawled 

 up again when of real edible value. In 

 the Danish waters the fish have no chance 

 of growing. Such vast quantities find 

 their way into these inland waterways and 

 cannot find their way out again, that the 

 food on which they subsist is totally in- 



