"Germany is obviously getting the surplus."
The values[26] of New York exports taken for the week July 30th to August 5th are equally startling:
| 1915. | 1916. | |
| New York to | £ | £ |
| Norway | 1,884 | 137,176 |
| Holland | 713 | 717,601 |
| Holland and Scandinavia | 123,327 | 970,255 |
On August 26th, 1916, an agreement was signed between the Dutch Fishing Association and the British Government regarding the release of some 120 to 150 Dutch fishing-boats laid up in Scottish ports, whereby not more than 20 per cent. of their catch shall be permitted to go to Germany. Of the remainder twenty per cent. was to be retained for home consumption, and sixty per cent. sold to neutral countries. On each barrel of this sixty per cent. the good, kind, benevolent British Government agreed to pay a subsidy of 30s. to the Dutch boat-owners.
Now the D.F.A. owned about 850 vessels and 1,000 barrels is a good average season's catch!
In addition to this arrangement the British Government agreed to pay full compensation for their loss of part of the season, to be calculated on the basis of the returns on an average season. They also agreed to pay for any damage which might have happened to the interned boats.[27]
One wonders what British fishermen whose vessels have been commandeered had to say when they were informed of these facts.
The Hamburger Nachrichten of August 23rd, 1916, published a telegram from its Hague correspondent declaring that the semi-official German Central Purchase Company was seizing Dutch food in enormous quantities; that local merchants were in a state of alarm and threatening Government interference; and their correspondent defiantly stated: "The Netherlands Government will hardly dream of interfering with the activity of the Dutch Bureau of the German Central Purchase Company, the operations of which are assuming larger and larger dimensions."
To add further proof of the utter futility and hollow sham of the alleged blockade safeguards, namely, the Danish Association Agreement and the Netherlands Overseas Trust, Sir Henry Dalziel informed the House of Commons on August 22nd, 1916, that in June Denmark imported over ten times as much cotton yarn as in June, 1913, and that in the first six months of the present year Holland exported to Germany over twenty times as much butter as in the first six months of 1914, nearly eight times as much cheese, and over seven times as much meat.
The unfortunate Lord Robert Cecil in mid-August gave quite a eulogistic report upon his stewardship as Blockade Minister, which was immediately followed by the arrival from New York of the Custom House returns showing that during the week ending August 5th the value of the exports to Holland, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark was eight times as great as in the corresponding week of the preceding year. To Holland the exports had increased in value a thousandfold and to Norway seventy-fivefold.