Where formerly England was an open door to Germans and suspicions against German spies were laughed at, the bars are now sharply up. Most of the golfing clubs have voted to suspend the activities of members with German antecedents.
At the clubs in Pall Mall, notices have been posted requesting members not to introduce during the war Germans or those of German descent.
Membership on the Stock Exchange is not continuous as in this country, and at the March elections in 1915 there will be a dropping out of German names.
CHAPTER XII
ENGLISH WAR FINANCE
Protecting Trade and the Trader—How German Banks Paid—The English
Loan—England's Wealth—The Income Tax—More Taxes.
A giant Atlas bearing the civilized world on its financial shoulders has arisen between the North and the Irish seas. That is the picture that stands at the opening of 1915, where before Germany had endeavored to stamp the label "Perfidious and degraded nation of shopkeepers."
Only the pencil of a Doré could sketch this giant and put him in figures of proper relief as, aroused from his pastime of trade and the acquisition of shillings, he summons with one hand the resources of the empire and with the other passes them out to needy warring nations, taking care all the while that the necessary dealing of exchange and commerce have the least possible disturbance.
Kitchener says the war may last for two years, but he is making preparations for three years, and must do this job so thoroughly that no repetition will be required.
If it is war for three years, then this mighty financial Atlas of England is preparing to write its name on promises to pay more gold than all the money-gold on the surface of the earth today. And England won't hesitate to do it if necessary—not for one moment.