In the early part of 1914 Germany exported lard to Holland, but this ceased on the eve of war. Great Britain, on the other hand, for some extraordinary and unintelligible reason, permitted her exports to Holland to increase. These are the figures:
| From Germany. | From Great Britain. | |
| 1914 | 861 | 660 |
| 1915 | Nil | 6,591 |
| 1916 | Nil | 12,273 |
Barley for Malt
In 1916 Great Britain exported to Holland about fifteen times more barley than normal pre-war exports, so diminishing our home supplies that the British working-man was deprived of his national beverage through shortage and prohibitive prices. Whisky also was similarly affected.
Tobacco
The Christian spirit of "love your neighbours and your enemies better than yourselves" had apparently no limits with the British Government. Their loyal and hard-suffering subjects were deprived of a full supply of the soothing weed on the excuse of economising freight room, but no effort seems to have been made to curtail Dutch supplies, which were thirty-five times greater than the pre-war exports.
In 1914 Hamburg and Bremen exported 4,544 tons of tobacco to Holland, but in 1915 and 1916 neither of these towns exported any at all.
The amounts exported by Holland from January to June in tons were as follows:
| To Great Britain. | To Germany. | |
| 1914 | 1,611 | 31,891 |
| 1915 | 1,672 | 54,456 |
| 1916 | 923 | 96,931 |