The special correspondent of the Timee at Berne explained on
Tuesday the state of the commercial controversy between Germany and Switzerland. Switzerland has hitherto received grain-food generally from the Allies, and coal and iron generally from Germany. Germany has threatened to send no more coal and iron to Switzer- land unless Switzerland sends in return the twenty-five thousand bales of cotton which have accumulated in Switzerland to German orders. The correspondent points out that this cotton has been collected by middlemen, who are in reality German agents, for the express purpose of levying blackmail in Switzerland. Switzerland is in a quandary, for if she gives way to Germany and sends in the contraband cotton, which will be used for explosives, she risks having her supply of cereals cut off by the Allies. Two solutions are proposed by the Swiss : (1) that the Allies should supply Switzerland with coal and iron, and thus enable her to defy Ger- many ; (2) that dealings with middlemen should be prohibited. (1) is probably a physical impossibility, and (2), though it is ad- mittedly a difficult scheme, seems to offer the better hope.
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