Belgium and North France together produce over forty million tons.
Even to-day, as the British prohibition of coal exports (enacted on the 15th of May) shows us, coal is one of the decisive means of political influence. The neutral manufacturing States must do the bidding of that belligerent who can guarantee a supply of coal. We cannot do this at present in a sufficient degree, and are to-day already compelled to fall back upon the Belgian coal supply, in order not to let our neutral neighbours become entirely dependent upon England.
It is quite probable that the systematic increase of the Belgian coal output, even during the present war, will prove a weighty factor in determining various neighbour States to remain neutral.
That coal, which produces coke and gas, at the same time supplies the bases of our most important explosives, is presumably well known, as also is the importance of coal in the production of ammonia.
In benzol, moreover, it offers the only substitute for petrol, of which we are short; and, finally, it supplies coal-tar, which yields (a) the oil fuel so indispensable for the Navy, (b) anthracite oil, the most serviceable substitute as yet obtainable at home for lubricating oil, and (c) naphthaline, the probable base of synthetic petroleum.
It may in this connection be remarked that we should probably be unable to develop our destroyer and submarine warfare to the requisite intensity without an abundance of liquid fuel. The course of the war has so clearly proved the superiority of oil fuel over ordinary coal-firing in torpedo-boats, that we should be guilty of unpardonable folly if we failed to base our future conduct on this experience.
If our hostile neighbours secure the possession of the oil wells, Germany must take care to secure for herself the necessary supplies of gas-producing and bituminous coal, and must in time of peace develop these until they constitute inexhaustible sources of oil, benzol, toluol, ammonia, and naphthaline; and that, not merely in order to increase our prosperity in time of peace, but as an indispensable part of our equipment for war.
To recapitulate: The realisation of the war-aims, which are proposed above with a view to our permanent economic security, will also guarantee our military strength, and consequently our political independence and power: moreover, we shall thus secure an extended field for our economic activity, which will afford and guarantee increased opportunities for work, and thus benefit our working classes as a whole.
"The Six Associations," states Grumbach, in his Annexationist Germany, "did not confine themselves to presenting their Petitions to the Government, but printed them and circulated them in the form of a confidential pamphlet amongst their members, who are domiciled in all parts of Germany. The anti-annexationist league, Neues Vaterland (New Fatherland), which got to know of it, kindly circulated the Petitions amongst its own members in the form of a confidential report, thus bringing them to the notice of a fresh public. Nevertheless, the great majority of the German people has, to this day, no accurate knowledge of the annexationist desires set forth in the Petitions, since the German newspapers were forbidden to reproduce them. In foreign countries the complete text of the Petitions was first published in the Parisian Socialist newspaper, Humanité, for August 11, 1915, after the Socialist Berner Tagwacht had published an abridged version on June 22, 1915."
II.