Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-06-08
THE WEAPON OF
STARVATION
Yves Guyot Says That the Block
ade, Made Effective, Will
Bring Germany to Terms
BY HENRI BAZIN



ACCORDING to Yves Guyot, whose repu-
n tation as an economist is based upon
| fifty years study and research In economic
and financial matters, out Of which have
come many able books. war, and particu'
larly modern war, is pure and simple an
elementary thing.
Its carrying on, NJ Guyot thinks. rests
upon steel and wheat and cotton, even
more than upon the vslor Of men. In its
end the belligerents holding the worlds
economic resources and controlling the
worlds markets can dictate crushing
condition Of terms
NJ Guyot also informed your correspon-
dent as to Germanic privation, through
information coming to him exclusively and
at first hand during the last thirty hours.
The substance Of an interesting interview
occurs in these words by NJ Guyot:
we all want peace" he said but only
the peace that denies possibility of future
war for at least two centuries, when peace
will have become the fashion. SO that war
cannot be reborn. II is now a definite GER
tainty that this is 10 be the full Allied
portion, very largely through the United
States.
Significance of Liberals Action
Many have smiled for instance, at the
Liberian diplomatic break with Germany.
Liberia is as nothing, they have mentally
said and her entry or nonentry weighs not.
And yet Liberia in her particular way is
a real factor in possibility. First, morally.
And morally throughout the war. But at
the moment OF peace factor IN action
For Liberia grows coffee
when the Boche is thoroughly beaten by
force Of arms and an absolutely complete
blockade as laid down In the proposed
American treatment of neutrals as regards
exports he WIN be forced TO Capitulate. He
will do this with very bad grace Of course
And he will not sit with good grace about
a green-clothed table. There he will make
every Boche effort to argue, to gain time
to postpone the inevitable to give as little
as he can, II even a grain of something
can be secured by any Boche method.
Suppose at such time, after the Boche
representatives have had presented TO them
every Allied demand and before a word OF
argument begins, the representatives of the
United States arise and say;
Unless without argument you agree to
each and every individual thing here laid
down, TO all our dictations, disarmament,
tion Of your autocracy, I propose TO engage
in treaty with my allies (and We respect
treaties in AmeriCa) not to let you have a
pound of cotton, a pound Of sugar, bushel
Of wheat for twenty-five years
And after the representatives of the
United States have taken their seats, Brazil
and Liberia arise and in the same breath
say: Those are my sentiments. Otherwise,
no coffee for twenty-five years And then
in order, China denying tea, Japan denying
rice, Guatemala denying her tropical prod
ucts, every ally denying some elementary
thing, all elementary things at its command
Even Cuba could say: We make good
cigars. And you don't get any for twenty
Ave years Finally France, which having
suffered most. arises and says: There Is
nothing TO argue about Germany Every
thing we have dictated and within two
hours or we enforce our terms anyhow, and
you suffer twenty-five years privation.'
How long, think you, will that confer
ence last under such conditions? Just two
hours longer since the Boche Is n BOche
and will take his full 12O minutes.
81 do not wish to say the words | have
used will be used. But do wish TO say
they should he in substance, and that be-
lieve they will be.
Neutral Trade Must Be Controlled
THE idea" continued NJ. Guyot, "of
placing a rigorous blockade upon Germany,
preventing possible receipt Of foodstuffs
from the United States through neutrals,
will hasten the end Of the war. Holland
and the Scandinavian countries have with
out doubt been supplying Germany Par
ticularly Denmark. And Switzerland, at
least in its northern portions. 1t is even
certain that supposing Switzerland and
Holland have not been exporting to Ger
many in the direct sense, they certainly
have in the indirect Because with the
best faith upon the part of these nations,
hay from the United States has fed Dutch
and Swiss cattle. And the cattle thus fed
have permitted the placing of meat on the
market as well as butter and cheese, all
of which have in some measure reached
Germany. If Switzerland and Holland were
reduced to the production Of cheese, of
butter of meat but from their own cattle,
and these cattle were nourished only by
their own hay, no expectation would be pos
sible. They would need every pound for
themselves. The tighter the screws are
placed upon Germany from every angle the
quicker the end Of the war with full victory.
And then the cotton, the wheat, the
sugar, the steel, the tea, the rice, the to-
baCco, every elementary thing at the COM
mand of the Allies can be laid upon that
green-clothed table.
Conditions" concluded NJ. Guyot. ARE
extremely bad in Germany. I have at first
hand from a relative, who Is mother su-
perior in a French convent in Helsingfors,
Finland, the following story. 1t came TO
me in the post during the last thirty hours.
The bishop Of the diocese in which my rela-
tive's convent stands is German He re-
Gently went 10 Germany to see relatives.
They had written him in distress. He
found people literally starving. He said
he could hardly recognize his relatives, who
had been denied sufficient food for over a
year. They looked it, he added. And he
experienced 1t personally. There was not
a nursing mother in all Cologne. He was
informed this was a general condition all
over BoCheland."
KING KARI, ON HUN LETTERS