to secure performance by the enemy of certain terms,
nor that, during a period of reconstruction and readjustment, the
conditions affecting certain industries may not demand some special
temporary protection for them. There may for a time have to be
restrictions on certain imports from the enemy countries, and on certain
exports to them, but all such proposals ought to be very jealously
scrutinised, not only in regard to their effect on the particular trades
directly affected, but on the country as a whole. The use of such
weapons often injures those who use them more than those against whom
they are used. Would not a German Minister of Propaganda, or a German
Committee on War Aims, wishing to stimulate active support for the War
among the German masses, be well advised to circulate some of the
resolutions that have been passed by certain bodies in England and
scatter them broadcast in Central Europe, with a few careful glosses and
comments to point the moral? They would be a valuable asset for a German
"ginger group." The open door into and out of this country for
commodities generally has made it an emporium for world trade, and been
one of the main causes why, in spite of deficient home production of
necessaries, we have been able to stand the economic strain of the War.
Striking off the fetters that it has been found necessary to
impose--sometimes with undue strictness and pedantic minuteness--on
British commerce and industry will be one of the first things to be
hoped for from peace. It is impossible to give detailed examples here.
Ask any merchant, he will give you specific instances of the need for a
recovered freedom. Questions are so closely involved with each other
that we may seem to be mixing up national trade interests with the ideal
striving for peace and goodwill. Yet, after all, self-interest rightly
understood and regard for the interests of others, with an honest wish
for their welfare, are not feelings mutually exclusive. There is high
authority for saying that "serving the Lord" is not incompatible with
"diligence in business."

It is quite possible to lay too much stress on the necessity for
definite and formal sanctions to enforce agreements. There are cases in
which the enforcement of a definite penalty for a wrongful act or for
breach of an agreement is very difficult, but in which the "sense of
moral obligation," "respect for public opinion," and "reliance on
principles of mutual consent" do re