Evening star., 1914-10-04

tle-on Tyne, Harwich and Hull, are
the evidences Of the manner in which
spite of war. thought the activity is
exaggerated. These lanes are kept
open chiefly for British bottoms. The
American consul general at London
before the war broke out reported a
tonnage of vessels entered and cleared
from foreign countries and British
possessions of 67,825.000 tons. OF the
entries fully 66 per cent were British.
British national policy in assuring a
suficiency of food in the event of war,
British carriers. is too well known to
require explanation. Last year the
United Kingdom imported food prod
ucts of all classes exceeding In value
00o. 1000. keeping for home consumption
in various forms close to 81 100000.
1t is not in evidence that German
cruisers have interfered with more
than half a dozen cargoes OF foodstuns
destined for British ports. But no one
in the United States would think OF
consigning a cargo of wheat to HAM
burg or Bremen.
The heavy imports of raw materials
such as cotton and fax for the textiis
well as those of copper. tin and other
basic material of the metal indus
tries. The year which the beginnlns
of the war marks, that is. the one
sSnw sS%%eee1ns Exports A Of $500 900 cotton
fabrics, as past years have shown, not
Withstanding that the British navy
keeps the ocean routes open Tor BTU
ish merchantmen.
The same observation as to values
applies to all forms of iron and steel
nroducts and to electrical goods some
German trade may be seized mere anu ~
there but while British industry ls
not paralyzsd to the T. same sIinn,ed ed.e A-
The question Is how far the cotton
mills Of the United States.. the iron
and steel mills, the manufacturers OF
engineering and construction material
will avail themselves of the dfslocateo
British trade, especially In the neutral
markets of South America and the
orient.
commodity suffers very heavily because
the market Is so largely In the coun-
tries which are the theater OF the war
This commodity Is coal. 1t Is not gen
coal in the foreign commerce OF Great
Britain. Yet exports of 75,OOo'oOo TONS
as was the case in 1913. are not un-
usual.
The value that year was above $780,
100000. OF the European countries
which are still neutral Italy Is the
best customer for Cardiff coal. 1t is
taken for the Italian navy, for the
state railways and to some extent Tor
industrial purposes. This traffic Is al
ready suffering from the prevailing
uncertainty.
American coal had obtained a foot
hold in Italy and in some other parts
of the Mediterranean before the war
began. 1t should now secure a perma-
nent place in the Italian market. Spain
also Is beginning to take cargoes OF
American coal. An Egyptian contract
was undertaken two or three years
ago at a loss by an American COM
pany in order to get into the market
The advantage of this venture should
now be reaped, since the supply OF
British coal to Egypt is subject to the
same uncertainties that relate to Italy
Six million tons were shipped from
Great Britain to the east coast OF
south America. and the United States
already has picked up half a million
tons of that.
British trade policy. like the rest OF
British foreign policy, Is continuous
but some features require further an
alysis in order to understand how firm
ly British trade is intrenched in all
quarters Of the world.
The growth Of British foreign com.
merce in the century since Waterloo
is not 80 marvellous as the develop
ment Of German foreign trade in the
generation since Sedan. There has
been none Of the systematic applica.
tion of the industrial arts, and the ac-
tive cooperation of the government
that has marked Germany's CONNER
cial expansions has not been shown