4 MARCH 1916, Page 3

Certainly we must never again become dependent upon Germany for

anything which is closely related to our military needs. From the economic point of view, we are entirely in favour of letting trade follow the lines of least resistance, and buying from foreigners what we cannot produce so easily as they can. We pay with goods of another sort. But, unfortunately, there is a moral or political side to this question which we can never again afford to neglect. It is conceivable that certain industries cannot, in the interests of national safety, be allowed to perish, even though it should prove to be an expensive business to keep them alive. To maintain them would be bad policy if the object was to enable us to become as rich as possible, but very good policy if the object was security.