alcohol (for which no rebate is given) makes it impossible to introduce economically methyl groups into dyes; the restrictions incident on the use of duty-free alcohol do not commend themselves to manufacturers; these constitute other obstacles in the way of the British color maker.  Lastly, our patent regulations are even yet not what they might be, although an attempt has recently been made to improve them.  The British manufacturer is thus trebly handicapped.

Besides, the English competitor is at a disadvantage owing to what may be termed systematic and fraudulent attacks, for which no redress has been obtainable.  Thus the manufacturers of Sheffield still complain, I suppose justly, that German articles for foreign consumption bear the words “Sheffield steel” stamped upon them.  I myself have been approached by a German swindler with the proposition that I should assist his firm in infringing patents; he was surprised and pained to learn that I did not consider his proposal an honorable one.

Nor are methods like these confined to business or manufacture; they have greatly affected British shipping.  Our shipping companies, in good faith, have associated themselves with others in “conferences,” apparently for the mutual advantage of all, forgetting that behind the German companies lay the powerful mass of the German State.  Tramp steamers, and with them cheap freights to the East, have been eliminated.  The Royal Commission on Shipping Rings, which met some years ago, referring to the system obtaining in Germany, and fostered by the German Government, on charging through rates on goods from towns in the interior to the port of destination, observed in its report:  “Such rates constitute a direct subsidy to the export trade of German manufacturers, and an indirect subsidy to those German lines by whom alone they are available.  And as they are only rendered possible by the action of the German Government, it appears to us that the British lines can in no way be held responsible for the preferences which these rates afford to German goods.”  Now, our Government pays large mail subsidies to many of our shipping companies.  Could these not be so utilized that it would become impossible for Germans to capture our trade by indirect state bounties?

These are a few examples (and your greater knowledge will enable you to supplement them with many others) of the methods which have been employed against us by Germans with the co-operation—­nay, the active support—­of their State.

Of late a new factor has appeared.  The German Imperial Chancellor made his noteworthy (or notorious) remark about a “scrap of paper.”  And Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, speaking in the Reichstag, acknowledged openly that the German Nation had been guilty of a “wrong” to Belgium.  This breach of faith has the approval of the whole German people.  Do they realize what it means?  Are they not aware that no treaty, political or otherwise,