THE MECCA OF WAR "CONTRACTORS."

Oamaru Mail, Volume XL, Issue 12541, 12 May 1915, Page 8

THE MECCA OF WAR "CONTRACTORS."

THIRSTY MEN WHO TALK IN MILLIONS.

LIGHTER. SIDE OF LIFE IX j PARIS- I (liy H. j. Oreenwali, Express | Correspondent.) I

Paris. ' J If any one" has a horse to sell, a few thousand yards of barbed wire, an odd c million sacks of cloth, stocks for rifles, ': or any one of a thousand other arti- 'J eles, let him haste to Paris, the Mecca of would-be war contractors. It almost seems- as if all the nierchandise of the world were x'otcntially concentrated here, and that the chief characteristic of every seller is a total absence of any knowledge of the goods he has lor sale, for at any hour of the ] day you can hear a barrister talking buckets, nu engineer selling army : socks, or an author trying to dispose of ' ( barbed wire. i . Perhaps- it is hardly necessary to .say that very few of the deals ever go further than the talking stage, but the amount of bine smoke and liquid refreshment involved is marvellous. j Not all these war contractors in embryo are square pegs in round holes, • however. Several delightful gentle- , men, who might have come straight ! from Arizona, drifted into this city the other day and proceeded to talk horses; . I horses in herds- .and droves galloped I through their conversation;, horses of j every kind, size, and color; you saw j them and heard the thunder of their | hoofs; you expected to find the street j full! -of them. ! One night, very late, a daring spirit said: "Where are your animals?" Tlien the cold, naked truth shattered our faith in war contractors; the horses ; had not yet left their home away back , west in remote American wilds. * SAMPLES BARRED. ! Horses, however, are not our sole source of conversation. If you like we can supply you with horseshoes, big guns, spades, cheeses, sides of bacon, or wheelgrease, but it would be indiscreet to be materialistic and ask to i •see samples. "Wo can talk about the good* till your head swims, quote vou figures, so much per something, P'.D.Q. or 5.0.5., I \ torget- which; we will tell you we have the goods, yes. sin;; but generally the goods are in the States; and we can . talk of financial giants in tones of familiarity that will take your breath away ; then we consult our agents and meet -again to-morrow in the same place and tell you about it all over again. Then there are the "boys," usually ' well-matured lads between forty-five and fifty years of age. "Where you find the war contractors you will always find the 'boys''—and you will always j find them thirsty.

I am still hoping to be present at what is sure to bo an historical- meeting; I want to see one of the "boys" , meet .another whom he has never seen before, and try to sell him horses or .something; and I want to be there at the finish when a mutual friend "puts them wise," and three thirsty pairs of eyes looks for the man who is going to pay the bill. j And there are others—retired captains of the Army and Navy, gentlemen generally representing a financial j syndicate of undoubted genuineness. I men who pathetically buttonhole Paris correspondents and ask to be introduced to the man who docs the buying for the Button and Braces Department; jockeys, schoolmasters, the morganatic wife of a late European sovereign, sea lawyers, and sky pilots; they are all in the business. LADTES TOO. The ladies, the "petites femmes" who used to sip tea languidly at Giro's and the Elysec Palace, have all gone into the business too, and none are more keen. .Ta.xieabs rattle up to the Ministries, and dainty women step out and, with an imperious air, order the cabman to ■wait. If the cabman has been there j before, he smiles contentedly and stops bis, engine. He knows who will first be tired of the waiting game:. Ministers have other things to do at the moment. It is wonderful, too, to count the number of people one meets who have just missed making a fortune. One man told me that he had met a man who had millions of yards of cloth, but could not find any one who bad the dye he wanted. The next day he found a, man who had dye of the right shade tor the French Government, but could not find the man who had the cloth. "If I could only have brought together," lie said, "I should have'--cleared- " I made him repeat the figures; I love to hear those prodigious sums tripping from the tongue. It makes one feel wealthy, merely to hear the dollars, francs, and p:mnd* leapirri and jumping around. j I need hardly say that none of these folks are the real war contractors. There is an office here where business is tran-acted every day with the minimum of talk : offers arc tendered, money deposited in banks. a*nd the deals settled in almost less time than it takes to record the fact. These men are engaged in the [serious side of war, and there is nothiuc; amusing about their . transactions. j

THE MODERATE LEAGUE.

Tek Pkess -Association. AYeiiington, May 11. An. important, announcement was made by the President of th'c New Zealand Moderate League., at a farewell function tendered to Mr X. E. Pearson by his fallow members of the contrail executive yesterday. The President statedi that the League would deputation-ise- the Government as scon as arrangements could be made to, receive them. They would' ask that the whole of their suggestions of reform* should be carried into effect, and 'in order that the matter might .received the most careful- investigation, would urge, the immediate .sotting \\n of Jin impartial Royal Commission of Inquiry. Tin? prominence given to the lic|V.n-r question by events arising out of the war in Europe would mean that the subject would now be much more thoroughly studied than t'ormerlv. The 'President said' the fact that the Brili=li: Government had declined to entertain, the suggestion of pri;hibit.'.oi>. in spite of an apparent need for dras-t-i-r- action, «nd instead were legislating f~r better regulation and control, was .the strongest possible endorsement of the moderate viewpoint as propounded •by 'League.