"The Germans are not 'let down' by their diplomacy in Copenhagen. A constant weight is poised carefully and with a silken brutality over little Denmark's head and von Ranzau smiles and assures Denmark he is really preserving her from his powerful master. And he gets his way, of course. The little matter of a permit for export? Well, perhaps it can be managed for you, Baron--_especially as the British watchman is asleep just now_! "So the great game goes on. If Denmark has goods that cannot obtain a permit for direct export to Germany they can go _via_ Sweden. _Vice versa_, if Sweden has goods about which our active British Legation there is too curious, send them to Denmark and re-export them. That is simple. And I have seen for myself at Denmark's port of Copenhagen Swedish goods (casks of American oil) which had been refused permits for shipment direct from Sweden to Germany, being loaded into the steamer _Heinrich Hugo Stinnes_, of Hamburg, for shipment to Hamburg. Also, on the quay at Malmö (Sweden) I have seen goods for which Denmark had refused a direct export permit being loaded into nameless lighters for shipment to German Lübeck. "Thus agreements, promises, guarantees, and prohibitions--_the whole commercial code that Great Britain has devised for regulating imports into Denmark and for checking their re-export to Germany_ (and, incidentally, for displaying to us at home) _are so much meaningless pantomime_. They have become so simply because the honester traders of Denmark, and the dishonest parasites of all nations who work under them and through them, have found that there is no supervision, no punishment, no judge to answer. _Our watchmen, both in London and in Copenhagen, have slept._" On January 13th, 1916, Lord Sydenham in the House of Lords raised the question of "Feeding the Germans," and in his speech stated that in cocoa alone our exports for August-July, 1913-14, were 6,138 tons as against 32,083 tons for 1914-15. For the sixteen months preceding the war our exports were 8,883 tons, as against 33,357 tons during the first sixteen months of the war. Lord Lansdowne, following, admitted that "_there was an enormous balance unaccounted for which it was reasonable to suppose found its way to enemy countries_." The following are the exports of cocoa to the countries named in the years 1913, 1914, and up to December 30th, 1915: COCOA EXPORTS In lbs. to 1913. 1914. 1915. (to Dec. 30.) Holland 2,205,282 12,203,463 9,298,805 Denmark 50,782 1,853,948 10,615,873 Scandinavia 343,573 3,079,904 14,606,309 A leading article in the _Daily Mail_ of January 14th, 1916, stated: