Mr. Hodge, the Minister–for Labour, made a rather surprielog speech
at Rotherham last Sunday. After saying that . he. tied. mapped out -a scheme for creating more than double the preeenta number of Labour Exchanges, he went on to reflect on the a
aiile-
ness" and " futility " of those who, like -himself, went. on " peace missions " to the sabre-rattling Kaiser before the war. Them was nothing surprising in all that, but it was surprising when he went on " Once we were blind, now w e see. -Three million tons of steel were coming into this country from .Germany. I_ am having that leakage stopped now. a am going to have no .more German.stectin this while there is middle furnace in this country. When every furnace here is occupied, then I might let a bit in. How silly we were in the-past to have -an. open door as against a closed -door."
We cannot discover from statistics that :Germany ever .a134 we, as much as a million tons of iron and steel of all kinds in any one year. A large part of what we did receive frorn Geamany. was treated as a kind of raw material to be worked up into more highly: finished states 'and exported. Moreover, we have never raised enough ore in this country for our furnaces. We recognize the necessity of fully protecting any industry on which our national. safety depends, but this. violent and unreasoned revulsion against freely receiving what we really want is another matter altogether.
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