German Business

AND

German Aggression

T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD., I, ADELPHI TERRACE, LONDON.

I9I7. FKICE TWOPENCE.

Walter Clinton Jackson Library

The University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Special Collections & Rare Books

World War I Pamphlet Collection

German Business

AND

German Aggression

T. FISHER UN WIN, LTD., 1 ADELPHI TERRACE. LONDON.

1917.

^^c.

CONTENTS.

Page Intioductory ... ... ... ... ... ••• i

(i) The Men of War and the Men of Peace... 4

(2) The German Banks ... ... ... 6

(3) The State and Transport 11

(4) German Subsidiary Companies 14

(5) German Business and the Foreign Press ... 15

(6) Naturalization and Espionage 18

(7) The Passion for Conquest 20

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German Business and German Aggression

INTRODUCTORY.

Among the many things revealed by the war, one of the more important is what miay be called the omnipresence of the German. Other nations, both those now belligerent and those now neutral, have suddenly discovered that German influence played a much larger part in their economic life than had been thought possible. As a consequence many wild state- ments have been made, and the slumber of many peaceful foll^ has been rudely disturbed by night- mares of the most violent kind. Business men, how- ever, are not in the habit of accepting statements without properly tcsllnpf them, nor are they prepared, without evidence, to believe that every one of those Germans with whom they may have rubbed shoulders in the past was a double d^^ed villain, But enougJ'

2 German Business and GEaMAisr Aggressioin.

has been seen and said to rouse legitimate doubt in the business communities of many lands as to whether German business methods are compatible with the economic development of the world as a whole, and it is with these doubts that the present writer is here concerned.

There are two things that must be pointed out. First, that natives of England, the traditional home of exiles from all foreign lands, are not naturally pre- judiced against the foreigner in their midst, nor is it the English w-ay to object to the immigration of natives of other countries for business or political reasons. Second, that it is important to distinguish between legitimate economic expansion and illegiti- mate politico-economic expansion. We all of us desire sufF.ciency — enough clothes and food and shelter and leisure for the development of ourselves and our children, that " necessary equipment of external goods " without which the old Greek phil- osopher denied that a full life could be lived. We desire this for ourselves and we respect the desire in others. Therefore we cannot reasonably object to the Germans because they are energetic in pushing their business all over the world. What we in com- mon with the rest of the world would find intolerable is that sort of business expansion which aims not at legitimate profits, but, in part at least, at making itself the instrument of an aggressive foreign policy. If we find that German economic expansion bears this character we are justified in c. /jcting to it, whether in our own country or in anotlicr. For expansion of this sort is not compatible with the best interests of the world as a whole and of international relations.

German Business and German Aggression. 3

Moreover, the present is a time when the matter has acquired particular importance. For the Ger- man pubHcists are talking of nothing more than the unaggressive character of German poli(\v, and how peace on terms suggested by Germany would be the signal for economic recovery, and for an ideal de- velopment of international relations, 'lake, for in- stance, Herr Maximilien HardtMi, the journalistic repository of the Bismarck tradition. Who could be more emphatic than he now^ is that Germany seeks no conquests, territorial or economic? Yet on Octo- ber 17th, 1914, when the full effect of the Battle of the Marne was perhaps not yet realised in Germany, he wrote as follows in regard to Belgium. " A noble- Germanism must here conquer new provinces Antw^erp not opposed to, but in conjunction with Hamburg and Bremen ; Liege alongside of the muni- tion works of Hesse and Berlin; Cockerill allied with Krupp; Belgian iron, coal and tissues under one management. . . . From Calais to Antwerp, Flanders, Limburg and Brabant, right beyond the line of the Meuse fortresses: all Prussian." If we are to pay attention to what such folk are writing now, we must remember also what they wrote when victory seemed within their grasp. And if we find adequate grounds for believing that German econ- omic expansion is guided by the will to promote such political ideas as these, we, the business men of coun- tries outside Germany, shall be forced to accept the opinion that German economic growth has to be regarded quite differently from the growth of any normal type of business. We shall even be bound to place obstacles in its way. For, whatever tern-

4 Germax Busixess and German Aggression.

porary profits mav be made out of war by certain classes, business prosperity is based on plentiful, production, rapid communication, and freedom from political disturbance. None of these conditions is satisfied by war or by a state of " Peace " in which one country is promoting political strife and violent change by politico-economic means.

The Men of A\'ati and the Men of Peace.

Such are the doubts with which the business com- munity the world over is confronted when it thinks about German expansion. Let us consider on what these doubts are based. They are based first of all on what the world in general knows of the organisa- tion of societv in Germany, an organisation in which industry and finance are more closely allied with the machinery of Government than in any other impor- tant country. " The Flag follow^s Trade," said Bis- marck, who was the architect of aggression in econ- omic as in political matters, " the inaugurator of international policy in financial spheres," as a Ger- man banker called him. From the Emperor down- ward all the political forces of Germany have long been concentrated on the support of German industry. Is it reasonable to suppose that German industry gives nothing in return to the soldiers and land- owners who thus go out of their way to support if^ The Kaiser numbers among his intimates the leaders of German industry, for example, Rathenau of the Allgemeine Elektrische Gesellschaft and Ballin of the Hamburg- Amerika Line, the same Ballin who became for a moment his master's official representative in

German Busiisess axd German Aggressiox. 5

the correspondence iniliated by him at the outbreak of the present \\ar with one of the proprietors of the London "Times." Moreover, mihtary leaders have vied w ith tiie leaders of industry in proclaiming that the expansion of German economic interests abroad represents an actual addition to the German Empire. As the Kaiser himself said to some of his subjects in 1896, "Thousands of your fellow countrymen are living in all parts of the world; German wares, Ger- man knowledge, German business energy traverse the ocean. The earnest duty, then, devolves upon you to form a strong link with this greater Empire, binding it to the Empire at home." Germany is the home of the scientific tariff, of the Kartell, and of systematic over-production for the export trade. Its recent nationality legislation, which is referred to later, accounts for the suspicion wdiich meets the German clerk, who is to be found all over the world wording with abnormal energy for a small salarv. When in the Spring of 1915 Germany lirst became doubtful of her military prospects and a party arose which opposed the annexation of Belgium, it was the six great economic unions that stood up (whether at the Government's instigation or not cannot be stated with certainty) to advocate annexation, indem- nities, and the full policy of blood and iron. These facts are so far from being denied that the close con- nection of German industry with the German Govern- ment is a matter of self-congratulation in Germany. All these things may be in themselves politically harmless to the rights of other nations ; they are only touched on here to suggest the atmosphere with which German expansion has surroimded itself. One

6 German Business and German Aggression.

may then proceed to consider the working of the Ger- man system with detailed reference to certain branches of industry and finance.

The German Banks.

There falls to be considered first Germany's finan- cial system as embodied in its banks. It is well known that each big German bank combines in itself functions w'hich in other countries are divided be- tween many different institutions. Thus in England a manufacturer will keep his pri\ate account, with a deposit balance to his credit, in one bank; another bank will keep the account of his business and advance money to it for short periods. \Mien he wants to raise money by the sale of bills of exchange, he may go to a discount house, specialists in this work, and these same bills of exchange will have been created by arrangement with an accepting house. When he wants to buy or sell stocks or bonds he will deal with a stockbroker; when he wants to sell his business to the public by turning it into a company he will go to an issuing house. In Ger- many all these services will be rendered to him by one bank; which in return will demand a certain amount of control over his operations. And we find in fact that this control is very strong. Its existence is so obvious that it is perhaps unnecessary to dwell on it. In 1911, for instance, the Deutsche Bank alone was directlv represented on the boards of 114 different companies, including such important enter- prises as "Siemens and Halske, " the "Deutsche uberseeische Elektrizitatsgesellschaft " and the

German Business and German Aggression. 7

" Norddeutscher Lloyd." The whole German banking system seems to aim, abroad even more than at home, at the domination and control of industry rather than at making legitimate profits by furnishing facilities at a fair price. Compare, as an example, the capital and deposits of German banks with those of English banks. In the table below the figures are given for the six principal banks of each country on December 31st, 1913 — before the beginning of war made statistics unreliable: —

6 English Banks. 6 German Banks.

Capital and Reserves £39,000,000 £74,500,000

Deposits £457,000,000 £244,000,000

The proportionately higher amount of capital and reserves in the case of the German banks confirms the popular impression that they aim at being able to sink large sums for long periods in new enter- prises, in return for which they obtain closer con- trol than their English or French rivals over the whole working of the business. It is this policy which explains, for instance, the Deutsche Bank's participa- tion in the Bagdad Railway enterprise, concerning Avhich the German publicist, Rohrbach, wrote in 1902 with characteristic modesty that it " had an undoubted political object." Compare again the German bankers' r=iethod of " participation " in industry with the English method of financing foreign trade. The German banks having decided to develop trade in a certain area, provide the favoured industry with a certain amount of capital. They are therefore represented on the Board of Direc- tors. Even though a large part of the capital is in the hands of natives of the country where the

8 German Business and German Aggression.

business is situated, Germans maintain the control of the management. The German bank is interested already, either alone or in consort with other banks, in various German Kartells. By its control of the new business which it has helped to establish abroad, it is enabled to force the product of these Kartells upon this business. Thus the establishment of a new enterprise abroad with the aid of German money means in practice that the natives of the country so favoured help to flood their own market with German goods at the expense of their fellow countrym.en manu- facturing those goods. A merchant or manufacturer abroad who seeks financial facilities in England has usually a different experience. Perhaps he approaches an English accepting house. The latter, satisfied as to his standing, agrees to "accept" bills drawn by him on them against shipment of goods and the usual certificates of insurance and bills of lading. The bill of exchange on London so created becomes a negotiable instrument anywhere in the world, and can be sold by the merchant or manufacturer to pro- vide funds for wages, materials, etc. When the goods are sold he has funds in hand again to pay the accepting house, which has agreed by "accepting" it to pay his bill. And so long as he has genuine business to do he can reasonably count on the main- tenance of these facilities.

This is clearly a method of financing himself of which the trader in any country can take advantage without fear either of losing control of his own busi- ness or of damaging his country's interests. The German system, on the other hand, has both these disadvantages, and it is by comparison with the

German Business and German Aggression. 9

English method that one is helped to see the aggres- sive character of German iinance and the perils which its growth involves to the native industries of such countries as Switzerland and vSouth America. In- stances are not hard to find. In Switzerland and Italy are, or were, to be found many companies for w hich the bulk of the monev had been provided in the form of bonds or debentures by the Italians or the Swiss, but where the ordinary capital, which alone carries the voting power and therefore the control of the directors and m.anagemcnt, is in the hands of Germans. Either they hold the majoritv of (he shares or hold a sufificlently solid block to outvote anv other particular element of the shareholders.

This was the position in regard to the mining com- panies of the Briey area, to which French capital had principally contributed. This was also the case of Societe Anonyme pour ITndustrie de 1' Aluminium of Xeuchatel, eight out of ^hose fifteen directors were German, and of the Banque des Chemins de Per Orien- taux, half of whose directors were also German. Take again an example of the same principle rather differ- ently Avorked in the case of Banca Commerciale Ttaliana. In 1895 Austrians and Germans held 29,000 shares of this bank, the Italians under 7,000, and the Swiss a similar amount. In 1914, the capital having been meanwhile increased, the shares owned bv Austro-Germans amounted on]\- to 7,400 against 195,000 owned by Italians, 04,000 by Swiss, and 42,000 by French citizens. Yet the directorate of the bank, formed under German influence when German capital still predominated, changed hardlv at all in regard to the nationality of its members during this

lo German Business and German Aggression.

period, and ihe management also remained predom- inately German right up to the time of the present war.

There will be found below further instances of the German method of obtaining control over business abroad. But it would at any rate seem clear: First, that German banks play a more important part in the direction of German industry than those of other countries. Secondly, that German banks are so organised as to obtain the maximum amount of con- trol over industries abroad, even though much of the capital of these industries may not be German. Ger- man finance is thus sharply distinguished from that of England and France, of which the chief character- istic is the employment of savings, which cannot find investment at home, in investments abroad. These investments are made not with the idea of controlling this or crushing that, but of employing money at a good rate of interest in countries where capital is rela- tively scarce. As for the relations between the Ger- man banks and the German Government, they are not of a kind that readily seeks the light of day, but one may quote one illuminating statement. It is an extract from the evidence given in 1907 by Ober- finanzrat Waldemar Miiller, a director of the Dresd- ner Bank, before the American National Monetary Commission, presided over by Mr. Nelson W. Aid- rich. " The Foreign Office," says Herr Miiller, "has frequentlv stimulated the German Banks to enter into competition for Italian, Austro-Hungarian, Turkish, Roumanian, Serbian, Chinese, Japanese and South American loans. Even when the banks are ap- proached from other quarters the first move made

German Business and German Aggression, i i

is to ask the consent of the Foreign Office for carry- ing on such negotiations. If the consent is given, then Ministers, Ambassadors and Consuls frequently support the representatives of the German banks by word and deed."

The State and Transtort.

Turning from banking, it will be natural next to consider German transport and shipping, in order to see whether these industries also show evidence of effort made by the German State in conjunction with private enterprise to obtain by politico-economic means control over the life of other nations. Take the railways, which in Germany, as in m.any other coun- tries, are state-owned. England and America are the two chief examples of countries where the rail- way system is in private hands, while in France the railways are in a state of transition from private tc •state ownership. But in all three countries the con- ception of railway business is the same, namely, that it consists of selling transportation at a fair price foi buyer and seller. The legislation of the United States particularly gives evidence of the determination on the part of the people to see fair play in regard to -railway rates. The ideal of the management of the German railway system is very different. It has been defined as being " inspired by the need to sup- port certain industries against foreign competition, •to promote the development of the nation's harbours, and to allow the cheap importation of certain products fhat have been adjudged necessary. . . . The ■'German State is a judge between different industries

12 German Business and German Aggression.

and different districts." Herein lies the explanation of the enormous number of special rates on the Ger- man railways, which M. Paul Leon estimated in 1903 to affect 63 per cent, of the tonnage carried and 46 per cent, of the freight paid. Similarly the con- vention relating to the St. Gothard tunnel was used by Germany as, in effect, a special tariff arrangement for the protection of German trade in Northern Italy, even though the goods concerned were transported by way of Switzerland.

When we remember all these things which are done by the Prussian State we can see under what obliga- tion the German exporter lies to his Government when he comes to sell'his goods abroad. Is it surprising, then, that foreigners regard the German merchant as, in part at least, an agent of the political ambi- tions of his Government ? Even the German mer- chant marine, which is owned not by the State but bv private shareholders, serves only to confirm this unfavourable impression. It is true that the direct subsidies paid to German shipping companies are smaller than those paid in Japan or even France. But by means of the special railway tariff referred to- above the German Government does all it can to force through goods traffic to the harbours which are the headquarters of the German shipping lines. Also, it has been the practice of the railway admin- istration, taking advantage of Germany's geographi- cal situation, to force up freight rates so that, for example, Russian goods are shipped to France by German ships from the Baltic ports rather than by a railway route, from which part of the profits would' go out of German hands. Again, the profitable emi-

German Business and German Aggression. 13;

grant traffic to America from Eastern Europe has been diverted by the German State ahiiost wholly into German ships. When, for instance, the Cunard Company concluded an agreement for carrying on emigrant traffic from Hungary with the Hungarian. Government, which was desirous of freeing its sub- jects from the grip of the German emigration agent,. German methods were fully exposed. The Hun- garian Government was satisfied that the Cunard' Company had suitable facilities for carrving on the traffic, and the Company had even recei\ ed a licence from the German (jovernment to carry on this busi- ness in Germany. Yet sworn statements showed clearly that, when Russians and Poles who had' booked by the Cunard route attempted to cross Ger- many, they were diverted to German ships by false statements made by agents of the German com- panies in the presence, curiously enough, of German policemen.

Some idea of the value of the trafific which the Ger- man Government thus ensures to the German ship- ping companies may be gained from the fact that when the American crisis of 1907 brought emigra- tion to a standstill, both the North German Llovd and the Hamburg-Amerika Line, which had been paying 8 and 10 per cent, dividend respectively, suffered a serious loss of profits, the latter being forced to reduce its dividend to 6 per cent, even for the year 1907 itself. Thus a brief consideration of the German transporta- tion system affords further evidence of systematic co-operation between the German Government and' German industry. And we are compelled again to ask ourselves whether the German trader who receives

ii4 Geeman Business and German xVggression.

such benefits from his militaristic Government can in fact be free to refuse his co-operation to any political schemes which that Government may have in mind.

German Subsidiary Companies.

In referring to the methods of the German banks it was shown how their expansion abroad did not bear the signs of a genuine desire to discover fresh fields for investment, but was marked bv a passion for obtaining control of the industry and capital of foreigners. One may now briefly consider some of the extensions of German industry which have been made abroad in order to see whether these also have this characteristic. And in doing so we shall again have in the back of our minds the thought that the German, when he reaches his foreign market, already owes a big debt to the close personal connection be- tween his warlike and land-ownino- o-overning; class and the leaders of German industry.

One is not here concerned so much with the direct export of goods from German v as with the network of German-controlled companies which are to be found in so many countries. The common history of these companies is something like this. Thev are established with rather a flourish in a foreign country under German auspices. Either thev are based on a native industry already existent, or native capital is subsequently attracted. But care is taken through- out that the control remains German. It is thus easy to ensure, after the new industry is firmly established, that the distribution of profits between the partly native subsidiary and the wholly German parent com-

German Business and German Acjgression. 15

pany is such that tlie maximum proportion iinds it wav finally into German pockets. A good example of this method is the Siemens-Schuckert Company of Berlin, with its subsidiaries in Milan and elsewhere, of whose operations a full account was gixen by Signor ^I. Pantaleoni in the " \'ita Italiana " of August 15th, 1915, Again, the Allgemeine Eleklrische- Gesellschaft had, through an intermediary in Zurich, control over six of the principal electric undertakings in Italy and of seven in Spain, which supplied, accord- ing to M. Hauser, 60 per cent, of the electric material sold in that Peninsula in 1910. The aniline dye- industry provides evidence to the same effect. So does the metal industry of Australia, which had before the war passed so far into German hands as to make special legislation necessarv to free the Aus- tralian-owned mines from the restrictive agreements with which German ingenuitv had limited their power of selling their products. And behind this armv of German controlled companies, operating for the profit of their German mother-companies, stands always the German State, helping the exporter by special railway rates and giving him the means, through a high tariff, of selling his products abroad below cost price, when any independent rival dares, to cross the path of the conquering Teuton.

German Business and the Foeeign Press.

Tt will be necessary to consider some aspects of the working of the Press in Germany, and bv Ger- mans abroad, for this subject also would appear to afford evidence of the combination for asreressive-

a 6 German Business and German Aggressions.

purposes of political with economic eiiort, suspicion of which was the occasion of this being written. It was Bismarck who reduced the German Press to a state of complete subservience to the Government. But it was reserved for a later Chancellor to encourage "a more delicate and more or less secret organisation." It was some time in 1913 that a meeting was held in the Foreign Office in Berlin, at which subscriptions rof £25,000 a year were promised to a private com- pany for "furthering German industrial prestige .abroad." The subscribers included the Deutsche Bank, the Diskonto-Gesellschaft, North German Lloyd, Hamburg-Amerika Line, A. E. G., Krupp, and other leading industrial firms. The subscribers further agreed to pool the whole of the amounts spent by them abroad on newspaper advertising, estimated bv Sir Ed^va^d Goschen at another £25,000 ..a year, and hand the amount to the new company. To this was to be added a Government subsidy of -at least £12,500 per annum, so that the new com- pany would from the outset dispose of a revenue of over £60,000 a year. The whole of this sum was to be spent bv the company on obtaining what is called "a good Press" for Germany in South America and other countries outside Europe. The new companv would offer a supply of news relating to German subjects and interests to a foreign paper, either free or at a ver}^ low rate, on condition that no information from a competing source or of a con- tradictory nature were published. If the paper refused the offer it would immediately lose all advertisements from any German concern whatever. This particular •cat was let out of its bap' in an article in the "Deutsche

German Business and German Aggression. 17

Export Revue" of June 5th, 1914, and, thanks to the independence of the Havas and Reuter Agencies, the scheme had at least partially failed before the War broke out, in anticipation of which it had been formed.

The article in the "Deutsche Export Revue" showed also that part of the plan was to send German jour- nalists abroad to further the sclieme, but the Revue naively added that "the intended despatch of jour- nalists we believe, however, in any case to be a mis- take, as it would certainly soon become common talk in the editorial of^ces in the several places abroad that they represented a syndicate officially supported by the German Empire." Needless to say the German Government was not pleased with the indiscretions of the "Deutsche Export Revue," and forbade reference to the article by other newspapers. Without search- ing for further examples, enough has been said on the evidence of a German authority to show' the exist- ence of one more of those queer combinations of poli- tics and business which are to be found in so many different divisions of German life. A society with an initial income of over £60,000 a year, supported by the State and by " big business, " w'ith the expecta- tion, as the "Deutsche Export Revue" said, of a fur- ther increase in income \\hen the scheme was actually working, was formed in time of perfect peace for forc- ing on papers abroad by threats and bribery a service of news which could ne\ er hope to be printed on its merits. The country which is the home of such pro- jects hardly seems a desirable neighbour.

1 8 German Business and German Aggression.

Naturalization and Espionage.

Before proceeding to summarise one's observations on the nature of German economic expansion, there is one more subject to which reference must be made. That subject is the character of the individual Ger- man who comes to other countries as clerics, agents, or manufacturers. It is an unsavoury subject, for business men prefer to trust eacli other's personal honesty rather than not. Moreover, the Germans who left their country before 1870, when the German Empire was not yet in existence, have in many cases proved themselves thoroughly loyal citizens of their adopted country. But since that time there seems to have been a change in the nature of this German emigration; the modern emigrant seems to come forth not to settle but to conquer. The preamble of the German Nationality Law- of 1913 may perhaps throw some light on the present outlook of the Ger- man, naturalised or not, who settles in a foreign country. This preamble sets forth that " in the con- ditons of modern international life it is convenient to give citizens the means of regaining one day the quality (of citizenship) of which they have provision- ally deprived themselves." As an American, Mr. F. W. Wile, wrote in 1906, " Already 500,000 Ger- man emigrants and their offspring are resident in Brazil. The great majority of them, it is true, have embraced Brazilian citizenship, but their ideals and ties are essentially inviolably German." Similarly a Belgian, M. Jules Claes, of Antwerp, says that "the very aim of Societies which group together the German in foreign lands is not only to keep alive

German Business and Geeman Aggression. iq

the German spirit, but to bring the naturalised within the German fold." A New York paper wrote on April 23rd, 1916, that "the President's difficulties have been increased owing to the fact that the Ger- mans had organised political pressure." Such is the atmosphere with which the Germans surround them- selves when they settle in a country, and there are many individual instances to confirm this unfavour- able view which their hosts appear to entertain for them. It is a matter of history that early in 1916 the efforts of the "Providence Journal" of the State of Rhode Island revealed to the American public what the police had already suspected, that is, the exist- ence of a vast conspiracy of German origin in the United States. With its details we are not here con- cerned; it is enough that the principal participants included not only Boy-ed and Von Papen, attaches of the German Embassy, who were expelled the coun- try, but also one Hans Tauscher, agent in the United States for the Krupp firm. Moreover, the office of Von Tgel, the go-between in the conspiracy, was situated in Wall Street, heart of the commercial quarter of New York City. Here again one sees the German State and German industry working to- gether abroad in a combination which the stress of war had rendered actually criminal. Incidents of espionage and sabotage by German men of business in countries at war with their own are perhaps to be treated with less attention than those which have taken place like that last mentioned in a neutral State. Yet it is hard to regard it merely as a coincidence that both the Eastern frontiers and the Northern coasts of France were before the war dotted over

20 German Business and German Aggression.

with mines, factories, and other businesses under German control, and that persons concerned with' these businesses provided so important a number of convicted spies. It is a subject, as was said above, that business men find unpleasant to discuss. But it cannot, in fact, be denied that the Germr.n busi- ness community has incurred grave and not un- founded suspicion of harbouring a number of per- sons whose real business is political or miliinry espionage, for which legitimate trade is no more than a convenient cloak.

The Passion for Conquest.

It may now be well to sum up what one has observed as the objects and methods of German economic expansion. We have seen that it was not based on a desire to find employment for an exces- sive population, or for the savings of many frugal years, as has been the case with England and France. The emigration from the United Kingdom in the year before war was 4G9,640, that from Germany 22,690. The emigration from France was also small, but the notorious saving power of the French nation sufficiently explains the expansion of that country's foreign interests. We know that German manufac- turers have organised on an unprecedented scale the system of dumping, of selling goods too high at home and too low abroad. We know also that these phen- omena can be traced only since 1879, which was, in fact, the year in which Bismarck constructed a tariff which at last reconciled the interests of the Prussian landlords with those of the commercial community

German Business and German Aggression. 21

all over Germany. Since that date we have evidence of the growth of mutual sympathy between these two naturally antagonistic classes. On the one hand the War Lord in shining armour, with the bold Branden- burgers of Frederick the Great; on the other hand, tlie peaceful traders and manufacturers, who for so large a part of German history had only asked for peace between the warring principalities of Central Europe that they might develop the natural wealth of the countrv. We have found these two classes working side by side and gradually amalagamating, socially and politically. It has been possible to observe the military and landowning class co-operat- ing heartily in building up an economic system which enriches others rather than themselves. But we have seen no reason for thinking that the military caste has in fact gone unrewarded, the conclusion being that their reward has been the support of the German business community for their schemes of conquest. If German militarism has learnt something from Ger- man science and German business, the latter would also seem to have absorbed some of the Junker ideals which raised Prussia from a poverty-stricken king- dom to the leadership of a populous and wealthy Empire.

We have seen this Empire make war on the little Kingdom of Belgium, no field for colonisation, but in density of population the second among civilised countries. Belgium had always held open the door — it now appears almost too widely — to the expansion of German business within its borders. We have heard the demands of the six great Economic Unions of Germany that Belgium should be retained under

22 Gejrma.n Cusimss and German AG^iLlEssloN .

the German heel for ever. We know that a great German shipowner, a personal friend of the Kaiser, attempted in 1914 to use his personal influence in England to prevent her from interfering with the invasion of Belgium, contemplated by his master's military advisers. We have understood the part played by the German banks in the economic growth of their country, and the extent, unparalleled else- where, to which these banks dominate individual German industries. Further, we have been informed out of their own mouths that their policy in regard to foreign loans is carried out in close co-operation and consultation with the German Foreign Office. It is know'n that in such enterprises as the Bagdad Railway a German bank can become, as it were, an actual partner of the German Government. We must believe, for it has never been denied, Sir Edward Holden's statement, that the Dresdner Bank issued on July 18th, 1914, a fortnight before war broke out, a warning to its customers to sell all investments in view of the approaching fall in prices which the Bank had reason to expect. A German newspaper has given us information of an attempt by a league of German industrialists and merchants to blackmail the Press of South America and other countries with the help of the funds of the German Secret Service. Is it to be wondered at that the accumulation of this and similar testimony makes one believe that German economic expansion cannot be dissociated from the schemes for political control over allies as w^ell as enemies, of which the events of the present war have given us examples ? Business men the world over know how to appreciate enterprise and business

German Business an«d German Aggression. 2J

energy from whatever country thev come. The more enlightened believe that good comes to all from im- proved methods of business and from the develop- ment of new countries. But when business energy, however genuine, is associated with the desire ta crush independence in others, and is closely leagued with the aggressive design of a powerful military caste, the time has surely come for the civilised world to assert itself. " This insidious and insinuating movement of conquest, preparing far ahead conquest both real and recognised," was how a Frenchman 25 years ago described Germany's politico-economic expansion. That is the movement against which the Entente Powers began at last to set their faces in August, 1914, and that is the movement which busi- ness men in every country, actuated by honour as well as interest, will never allow to dominate the world.

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