lgium practically
into German dependencies. She had achieved predominance in Turkey and
established a firm footing in Asia Minor. Her influence in South
America and Asia was increasing by leaps and bounds. Even in the
British colonies the victorious efficiency of the German commercial
conquerors was making itself felt more and more.

And as to this newly discovered naval militarism of England which, you
say, "is seeking to force England's will upon the whole world by the
force of her mighty fleet," what has it ever done to bar the way to
your commerce? Absolutely nothing. A few days ago I read a letter of
an American traveller, from which I quote the following extracts:

"Not many years ago I sat on the club veranda at Singapore
and counted twenty-five funnels of a single German steamer
line. From Singapore I went to North Borneo; there was but
one line, a German, and that line carried the British mail.
Later I went to Siam from Singapore. It was on a steamer of
this same German line, carrying British mail. There was no
other. Thence I went to Hongkong by the same excellent German
line. Later I went to Australia--it was by one of this same
line. To Java and the Eastern Archipelago, to Penang--it was
always this vast German company, doing not only all the
German, but the British mail service as well. The German
traders, with whom I mixed freely, marvelled at the infantile
generosity with which Great Britain opened all her ports to
German enterprise, although long-headed people shook their
heads at the thought of German skippers having a better
acquaintance with British waters than their own people.

"Nowhere in the British colonial world have I found the
slightest evidence of commercial monopoly and certainly no
favouring of Englishmen at the expense of Germans. Even in
India the German commercial traveller has roamed at will and
driven Englishmen out of business under the very noses of the
Calcutta Council.

"In the Imperial German colonies, on the other hand,
competing English traders have been treated to a systematic
course of petty official restrictions so vexatious that
finally they have given up the attempt to do business under
German conditions. When I was in German New Guinea this
official persecution went so far that a British trading
steamer was even forbidden to get water in order to force