1915 6,187,000 1916 7,756,000 The _Lokal Anzeiger_, July 28th, 1916, remarked: "These figures constitute a most gratifying state of affairs in respect of the _requirements of the German Armies_." No wonder the captured German officer remarked: "You English will always be fools, whilst we Germans can never be gentlemen"! In August[25] a Mr. E. Bell, of 12, Yarborough Road, Lincoln, wrote to the Press as follows: "The talk of tightening the blockade of Germany is rather futile in face of the following Board of Trade figures referring to cotton yarn exported from the United Kingdom to the following neutral countries: JUNE Sweden Norway Denmark Holland Switzerland 1914 108,900 218,700 106,400 3,220,800 722,600 1915 260,800 348,300 204,700 4,493,300 1,788,800 1916 279,200 508,200 598,400 7,539,800 1,304,100 "Germany is obviously getting the surplus." The values[26] of New York exports taken for the week July 30th to August 5th are equally startling: 1915. 1916. New York to £ £ Norway 1,884 137,176 Holland 713 717,601 Holland and Scandinavia 123,327 970,255 On August 26th, 1916, an agreement was signed between the Dutch Fishing Association and the British Government regarding the release of some 120 to 150 Dutch fishing-boats laid up in Scottish ports, whereby not more than 20 per cent. of their catch shall be permitted to go to Germany. Of the remainder twenty per cent. was to be retained for home consumption, and sixty per cent. sold to neutral countries. On each barrel of this sixty per cent. the good, kind, benevolent British Government agreed to pay a subsidy of 30s. to the Dutch boat-owners. Now the D.F.A. owned about 850 vessels and 1,000 barrels is a good average season's catch! In addition to this arrangement the British Government agreed to pay full compensation for their loss of part of the season, to be calculated on the basis of the returns on an average season. They also agreed to pay for any damage which might have happened to the interned boats.[27] One wonders what British fishermen whose vessels have been commandeered had to say when they were informed of these facts. The _Hamburger Nachrichten_ of August 23rd, 1916, published a telegram from its Hague correspondent declaring that the semi-official German Central Purchase Company was seizing Dutch food in enormous quantities; that local merchants were in a state of alarm and threatening Government interference; and their correspondent defiantly stated: "The Netherlands Government will hardly dream of interfering with the activity of the Dutch Bureau of the German Central Purchase Company, the operations of which are assuming larger and larger dimensions."