Flannigan assures us that the Germans don’t go to sea now much because they won’t risk their merchant vessels in waters where the Allies are sure to nab them sooner or later; but that, in the main, it’s a clever trick to keep for after the war ships that are not worn out, that are in a way almost new, in order to take over the carrying trade everywhere when peace comes and all our merchant vessels are done for. And at bottom, Flannigan can’t be wrong, for if all the ships are made to slog around like the _Pamir_, they will last as long as they do last, but those of the Boches will be in quite a different condition. Fourgues adds that it’s not worth while trying to deny it, as the Allied nations aren’t building a single ship, and anyway a ship can’t be put together in five minutes like a regiment. So from that side, if we don’t do something in advance, we’re sure to be skinned by the Boches when peace first comes, for they’ll immediately take up all their former trade as well as all that we have lost. The Germans are saying this among the neutrals, and what is more, according to Flannigan, their big commercial and industrial firms in Saxony or Westphalia are at present sending all over the world catalogues of goods to be delivered during the war, from four to six months after the order. Isn’t that the limit? Fourgues told Flannigan it was German bluff! But, no indeed! Flannigan went over to his ship to look for bills of lading of merchandise taken aboard at Rotterdam, Bergen, or elsewhere in the neutral countries, and proved to us, evidence in hand, that he had transported cargoes of products made in Germany since the war and that he was not the only one. It was going to Brazil, the United States, or wherever there were purchasers. He even stated that there had come into France by way of the neutral countries certain hundreds of thousands of tons for which we had paid with our good money. What are we to believe, old man, when the newspapers and the Ministers and the rest keep yelling to us that Germany is economically ruined and dying of starvation? Flannigan can’t be lying, for the neutrals have to get merchandise from somewhere while France is producing nothing and England is beginning to have all she can do to look after herself. As to food, Flannigan says that famine in Germany makes a good story, but that we had better tighten the blockade if we want them to tighten their belts. All this is not very pleasant to hear, but when the person who says it is sincere and has seen things, one can only regret that it’s not known at home and, in any case, that nothing is done to remedy it. This is not to say that they are going to beat us, but just that we ought to prevent them making fools of us.