It is true, of course, that we had, weakly enough, allowed ourselves to become dependent upon Germany for scores of German-made articles. Such vital necessities as chemicals of various kinds and the aniline dyes are good instances. Even now we are suffering from the lack of some of them. But there is no mistaking the fact that we are very rapidly finding substitutes for what we formerly imported from Germany. The making of British dyes, for example, is progressing by leaps and bounds; and there is no doubt that if our traders are given half the encouragement that is given to German traders by the German Government, they will very soon show that they have nothing to learn from their German rivals. Every day we get new evidence that British firms are more and more completely adapting themselves to the altered conditions, and laying down extensive plant for the manufacture of just those articles we used to purchase dearly from our Teutonic competitors. That policy must be ours for all time.
What Germans have done we can do. The German is great at imitating and improving, but he has little originality; he is like the Japanese, quick to see a good thing and adapt it, but not so quick to invent. We have to see for the future that we are as quick as he is to adapt and a great deal quicker to invent, and unless we do so we shall in a very few years’ time see arise in a new form many of the troubles which, if we handle the commercial position aright, ought never again to disturb us.
“Never again” must be our watchword in dealing with the accursed German competition. Our people must be educated to a permanent boycott of German goods; if they will not learn, they must be compelled. Our manufacturers must be protected against the policy of dumping bounty-fed goods throughout our Empire at rates with which it is impossible for them to compete because the German Government makes it possible for the German trader to sell even below cost price with the object of ousting his British rival. Socially and commercially we must be protected against the flood of aliens who have already done untold harm to British labour. All this we have done for eighteen months; we must do it in perpetuity for the future.
But when all is said and done we cannot make our position in the world secure unless our trading classes are prepared to revise very considerably many of the methods they have adopted for years past. The time when British goods sold merely because they were British, and therefore the best on the market, has gone for ever. To-day commercial competition is keen beyond anything of which our forefathers had knowledge, and our methods unfortunately have not kept pace with the changing circumstances.
There has been too much of the old happy-go-lucky style about us; we have been too much inclined to rest upon our reputation, and to think that because all was well fifty or a hundred years ago, all must be well to-day.
The sooner that idea disappears from the minds of our business men the better it will be for them and for the Empire. Never was the King’s message, “Wake up, England,” more urgently necessary than it is to-day. Proper measures taken by our Government will make it easier for us to beat the Germans in the future in the field of commerce. But no measures which Governments can take will wholly replace business ability and energy. Just as, given proper weapons, our soldiers can beat the Germans in the field of war, so we can beat the Germans in the field of commerce if our commercial soldiers are given weapons adequate to the task they have in hand. But neither the weapons of war nor the weapons of commerce will avail us unless they are used by men with clear heads, strong hearts, and unbounded energy and determination.
As this volume goes to press the Titanic struggle for Verdun—the battle which may well decide the War—rages with undiminished fury. What the outcome may be none can say, but, at least, the omens are good. After over a fortnight of furious fighting, after the expenditure of many lives and enormous quantities of ammunition, the Huns have utterly failed to pierce the French defence. The troops of France are fighting like heroes: her generals are serene and confident. Germany has staked her all on this gigantic thrust. Failure would spell national depression on an unparalleled scale, and add to the German Government’s growing difficulties. And if Verdun falls, will the victory be worth the price? We know that almost any position can be taken if losses are disregarded. But whether Verdun will ever be worth to the Germans the price they will have to pay for its capture is, to say the least of it, exceedingly doubtful. But the Germans are deeply committed to the venture, and it may be that they will consider no price too high to pay—for they hold “cannon-fodder” cheap—in order to save what remains of their badly shattered national, military, and dynastic prestige.
The End.