To the probable relief and secret joy of the Cabinet, and to the irreparable loss of the nation, Mr. W. M. Hughes was in the early summer of 1916 compelled to return to his duties in Australia. After his regretted departure the so-called blockade continued to leak, as is proved by the following facts and figures which found their way into the Press in spite of all the hushing-up processes of the weaklings in power. Can it be wondered at that many thousands of astounded Englishmen were actually beginning to believe that some of our prominent Ministers did not want to win the war because they were either indirectly interested financially in Teutonic enterprise, or they were pro-German from other mysteriously concealed causes? What other possible reasons seemed arguable in view of their extraordinary actions, their leaving undone those things which they ought to have done, and their doing those things which they ought not to have done? How German production steadily revived from the shock of the first year of the war is shown by the following table of pig-iron output in tons published in the _Berliner Tageblatt_: 1914. 1915. 1916. January 1,566,505 874,133 1,077,046 February 1,445,511 803,623 1,033,683 March 1,602,714 938,438 1,114,194 April 1,534,429 938,679 1,073,706 May 1,607,211 985,968 June 1,531,826 993,496 July 1,561,944 1,047,503 August 587,661 1,050,610 September 580,087 1,033,078 October 734,841 1,076,343 November 788,956 1,019,122 December 858,881 1,029,144 Asking the Prize Court on June 5th, 1916, to condemn the Swedish vessel _Hakan_, of Gothenburg, with her cargo of 3,238 barrels of salted herrings, the Attorney-General, Sir F. E. Smith, alleged that the fish were intended for Germany. Writing from Lübeck to Gottfried Friedrichs, fishmongers, of Altona, said the Attorney-General, a member of the firm of Witte & Co., their forwarding agents, said: "We have prohibited the export of herrings from Norway, but our firm has obtained a licence to export 50,000 tons. We hope to sell 75,000 tons this winter, so there is plenty of work." Sir Samuel Evans: How many herrings in 50,000 tons? The Attorney-General: My assistants and confederates inform me that there are about 450,000,000 herrings. It is a conservative estimate. These are official figures published by the Netherlands Statistical Department on May 20th, 1916; such great assistance rendered to Germany is more serious owing to the fact that Germany's gain has been our loss. FOODSTUFFS SENT FROM HOLLAND, IN TONS. (Covering the months January to April.)