INVASION OF FRANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 152, 28 June 1940, Page 4

INVASION OF FRANCE.

; ECONOMIC REPERCUSSIONS. LONDON, June 28. ■ The economic consequences in France of tha armistice with Germany and Italy are at present obscure. In normal times France imported cereals,- fruit and meat to moderate, extent, and fertilisers and feeding stuffs in large quantities. Economic authorities point out that every effort was being made before the war to supply these deficiencies from t»he French colonial empire. Four million tons of phosphate produced by French Northern Africa were mainly exported to France. The future position of her colonial possession therefore must have a very important, effect on the economy of France herself. It is reported that French coal mines were mostly flooded before or during the German occupation. Important stocks of petrol were destroyed in the north in the first few weeks of the invasion. The necessity of carrying on French central services will make large inroads on the very considerable stocks which remained and have now come under German control. Raw material for the great French textile industry came from the British Empire and the two Americas, and is likely to be affected by the imposition of the British contraband control of German-occupied French ports.