Finn nil' 65 



deals very fairly with our chief enemy, and gives them all 

 the credit they deserve for having shown the determination 

 they always have done to hang on to Brazil in spite of the 

 most serious drawbacks. The climate, the Indians, and 

 the total lack of communication at first, still left them 

 undaunted, and, as we have always claimed, it is a great 

 shame to think how the people of this country, spoilt and 

 pampered at home, have not swarmed out to South 

 America, which has been so liberally financed with our 

 capital, to develop the continent along lines that would 

 prove of mutual advantage both to the visitor and visited — 

 10 Brazil as well as to our own Empire. 



After the War it is sincerely to be hoped that this 

 mistake will be rectified. The girls and women can stop 

 in the offices, and the men can go and push British interests 

 over there, and assure Brazil's future by means that will 

 not leave her with an unpatriotic growth in her midst that 

 can injure her future, as Germany seems anxious to do at 

 the moment, if given a chance. Brazil, by cutting off 

 negotiations, will no doubt be able to put her house in 

 order. We wish her all success, and she ought to be very 

 grateful to Miss Elliott for having published so important 



truth from a political point of view. It might also be as well to remind 

 leaders what President Wilson told the American Federalion of Labour at 

 Buflalo when he addressed them on November 12, 1917 : viz., " There is no 

 ini[)ortant industry in Germany upon which the Government has not laid 

 its hands to direct it, and, when necessity arose, control it. You have 

 only to ask any man whom you meet who is familiar with the conditions 

 that prevailed before the War in the matter of international competition to 

 find out the methods of competition which the German manufacturers and 

 exporters used under the patronage and support of the Government of 

 Germany. \'ou will llnd that they were the same sorts of competition 

 that we have tried to prevent by law within our own borders. If they could 

 not sell their goods cheaper than we could sell ours, at a profit to them- 

 selves, they could get a subsidy from the Government which made it 

 possible to sell them cheaper anyhow ; and the conditions of competition 

 were thus controlled in large measure by the (jerman Government itself. 

 IJut that did not satisfy the German (Government. All the while there 

 was lying behind its thought, in its dream of the future, a political control 

 which would enable it in the long run to dominate the labour and the 

 industry of the world. They were not content with success by superior 

 achievement ; they wanted success by authority. I suppose very few of 

 you have thought much about the Berlin to Bagdad railway. The Berlin 

 to Bagdad railway was constructed in order to run the threat of force 

 down the flank of the industrial undertakings of half a dozen other 

 countries, so that when German competition came in it would not be 

 resisted too far, because there was always the possibility of getting 

 German armies into the heart of that country quicker than any other 

 armies could be got there.' 



