COLOSSAL TASK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 279, 25 November 1941, Page 7

COLOSSAL TASK

RESTORING RUSSIA

Difficulties That Germany Must Surmount

British OfllctaJ Wireless.

Rec. 10.30 a.m. ItUGBY, Nov. 24. be^ahlA 31 . w hi c h Germany will from tho denve Poetical benefit Sffi SrSat; whichT he Economist, sians, a destruction which wac planned as comprehensively as anv previous schemes of construction^ are ahlp l ° S % districts where they rapidiv did thf V n nce sudden ly and safvaeTne >,? erm ? ns suc ceed in OTOSertv g ♦&®J larvest or industrial p f ape r sa y s - "The most serious side of sabotage in a<*rirnisten farrnTrf ff " om the fact th at Rusnfeed iHs ha' S i very heavily mechaRussia s Innn t ? ay how man y of ftussias /000 tractor stations the Germans captured intact. If the sum of agricultural and industrial Gerrnfmsf 1S ad K Gd Up ' 3,1 that the vea^fcT'L^ 3 " ° pe to secure this much a! in—probably not as mucn as the Russians exported to last year-flax and hemp crops and oilseeds. 1 ;r and iron ore are available s nn7in an be f rained - but Germany is not m great need of either and ™W on 18 . 2000 miles from' the nearest smelting works. There fupXTfh^ l the Russia ™"have supplied the Germans very fullv in previous years. As for next year " continues The Economist "everything depends upon the degree of i eorganisation possible. It is net likely to be high. nct

Power of Restoring War Ravages nf e ,y er t heleSf: - the Germans' power wan,| lnß country devastated by and sabotage should not be underestimated. Behind the front line is a whole army of men Uo C n Ple Th^ n imnicdiat e reconstruction. There is an army of economic p Jho make an inventory of captured foodstuffs, raw materials f<T C >, machinery. Behind them are technicians, many hundreds of thouskmlrl St^ n V 3 CO, ?s of engineers. f.vJli workers who repair water works, power stations, gasworks plants and factories. '

♦ ~ ParaHel with, and complementary to their activities, is the work o'f an organisation which mav well number 500.00° men. Its work is the building up of roads, railways aerodromes, factories and housing' Benind them again are millions of na\vies in labour corps and amonc prisoners of war." b

The German Army which was used in the reconstruction of occupied France—light tanks were used instead of tractors, for instance for the autumn sowing—are not available in Russia since the battle stir, continues. Germany has to relv' therefore, very largely on co-opera-tion of the local population. Some support could be obtained, particularly in the Baltic States and East Poland, where collective farming was not two years old if the Germans reverted to individual farming but economists point out that production would inevitably fall as a result.

If the Germans divided up the land into small holdings the result would be not only no surplus for Germany but not even subsistence for the Russians. This would not. however hold true as regards industry, and the Germans have already set up industrial companies in' Russian occupied territory

Summing up. The Economist savs: "There are no machines. The railways groan under militarv traffic. The roads are quagmires. The towns are gutted. To keep even a faint pulse of economic life is all the Germans can hope for this year, or perhaps next. 'Collaboration' did not get under way in Franco until February, 1941. and there were thousands of industrialists, large and small, with whom to work. Russia must, by every count, entail a slower schedule."