SIR,-4 think the statements in Mr. Horsfall's letter which appeared
in your issue of September 2nd should not pass unchallenged. One can quite understand the " set" made against this country by the foreign Press, as it is, no doubt, a good policy from a political and business point of view to brand a competitor as incapable; but I infer, from his name, that Mr. Horsfall is a Britisher, and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth when our own people assail us, and in this instance, I think, unjustly. Mr. Horsfall states that "a great proportion" of our industries are in the hands of Germans, which would lead some of your readers to believe that fifty per cent. or over is the proportion. Now, Sir, I have been a manufacturer for thirty years, and accustomed to travel over Great Britain, and in the shipbuilding, steel, and iron trades of the North, Stafford- shire, and Sheffield, in the cotton trade of Lancashire, the woollen trade of Yorkshire, and the special industries of Birmingham and the Potteries, I cannot count half-a-dozen firms of any note which are in German hands. There are a few German chemical manufacturers, but the proportion is under five per cent. There is a larger proportion in the rubber trade, but not above ten per cent., and they are not the leading firms ; besides, the rubber trade cannot be called one of our leading industries. The flow of labour is always from a poor to a rich country ; and it is only natural that some Germans should seek to better themselves, and at the same time free their families and themselves from the danger of conscription by becoming naturalised British subjects. The latter incentive is a strong one. Such immigrants are welcome, as they are endowed with a useful intelligence. There are a goodly number of German agents, merchants, clerks, and waiters throughout the country, but the last • Census showed that the percentage of Germans in the
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