124 Hou' to Pay jov Die War 



Fellows of the Royal Colonial Institute in which that 

 authority on international and inter-Imperial trade, told 

 his audience that " A recent article in the Muenchener Neiieste 

 NacJirichien, written by Professor Foerster, of Munich, 

 pointed out that : — 



" ' Even if the continuation of the struggle for years 

 were to end in our retaining Belgium, and possessing the 

 great economic resources of the country, what could all 

 that profit us, if the rest of the civilized world were 

 stubbornly to shut itself against us and to refuse all moral 

 and economic community with us ? 



" ' Assuming even that we conquered all Italy and all 

 Russia, and, in addition to Belgium, held the whole of the 

 North of France as an economic indemnity and as a base 

 against England, how would all that help us to rebuild our 

 great world industry, which is entirely dependent upon the 

 enormous markets of Pan-America and of the British 

 World- Empire ? 



" ' //; is by being carried upon the back of the British Empire 

 that we Germans have acquired our greatest riches. Only by the 

 help of that gigantic export could we pay for our indispens- 

 able raw materials — for example, for the wool which we 

 imported from the British Empire to the value of lyh 

 million pounds sterling a year.' And so forth. 



" Fix in your minds this noble phrase, exquisite in its 

 candour, inexpugnable in its truth : ' It is by being carried 

 upon the back of the British Empire that we Germans 

 have actjuired our greatest riches,' for I shall have occasion 

 to ask later. Do you propose to resume the obsession of 

 the Old Man of the Sea, the grinning ogre whose inner 

 essence you now know so well ? 



" In the Hamburger Nachrichten," Mr. Beale continued, 

 " fire-eating von Tirpitz" thus counselled his compatriots a 

 few weeks ago : 



" ' Not only has England taken our colonies and 

 Mesopotamia, but everywhere she has made deeper and 

 firmer bases for her maritime and colonial supremacy. 

 She has abolished German competition in almost all parts 

 of the earth, and has tarnished and trodden down the 

 prestige and honour of Germany by unprecedented calum- 

 nies. In the whole Overseas world we are considered as 

 conquered and done for. 



" ' Imagine the position if we simultaneously have to 

 bear the burden of the taxation which must fall on every 

 German and, despite the fallen value of German money, 

 we have still to buy the most necessary raw material and 



