ENSURE PEACE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 127, 1 June 1938, Page 7

ENSURE PEACE?

DROUGHT IN EUROPE. Grain Scarce in Italy, Germany, France and Belgium. BIG IMPORTS MAT BE NEEDED. LONDON, May 27. "You cannot start a war with breadeards," was the warning issued by a German general, and for this reason the drought in Europe may preserve peace for another year. The position is desperate in Italy, where it is now mostly too late to save the crops, and is most serious in France, Belgium, and Western Germany. Central and Eastern Germany, the Danubian and Balkan countries have had good rains, which now promise to become general in England and Germany, and may help France. Grain sown in the spring has not sprouted, and wheat planted in the autumn is miserable and stunted over wide areas. Drought, east winds, and frosts conspired to preYent the growth, but rain may now help autumn-sown crops. The pinch from the crop failure is expected to be f6lt next winter. By the end of the year Italy and possibly Germany, France and Belgium, may have to import large quantities of grain. France may be able to satisfy her needs largely from the colonies, but Italy may have to enter the world's markets. > A disquieting feature is that drought may intensify the German drive down the Danube, increasing her desire to control the wheat exports of Hungary and Rumania, where, it there may be some surplus which Germany : may secure without the cash payments needed to obtain overseas supplfts. For political reasons Britain' and France 4re anxious to increase trade with the Balkans an! Danubian States, but Britain's commitments in the Dominions and elsewhere render "ft difficult to take much more from fiiese regions.