GOAL FOR VICTORY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 39, 10 November 1941, Page 10

GOAL FOR VICTORY

Huge Production Effort Required MEN AND MATERIALS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 7. "If Germany is able to bring to bear in the near future an air force, armoured divisions. and a fleet twice or three times the size of those she now has at her disposal, it would then be possible to Imagine that she might snatch the only kind of victory which would be worth anything—final victory. But we do not in any way foresee the probability of such an increase,” said tlie Free French leader. General de Gaulle, in a speech in London.

“Several months have already passed since the German war industry attained its maximum output,, since the Reich mobilized all its possible manpower and drew upon the armaments factories for everything they could provide on land, on the sea. and in the air. But the state in which the enemy found a great many mines and factories, various difficulties, and the prolonged delays necessitated by the adaptation of industries to arbitrarilyimposed conditions, and, in short, the indifferent output of recalcitrant labour, lead us to believe that the enemy could not derive more than a mere contribution from Ills conquests without a long and peaceful period of organization.” Tanks, Planes and Sliips.

The first’ condition of victorious action in the present war, .lie said, was the production of tanks, planes, and ships. General de Gaulle went on: "From the moment that the free peoples have at their disposal a sufficient superiority by wmy of tanks and aircraft, as they already have in ships, there will be no doubt as to their victory. “In this war the secret of victory is henceforward public property, and it can be defined by. the simplest child in the street, as well as by the statesman or the army leader. Most certainly, a gigantic effort is necessary for us to have at least enough tanks ajjd planes, as . well as a sufficient number of those articles, installations, and accessories which will enable proper use to be made of all these tanks and planes.

“If we estimate the extent of the battle zxmes on land, bn the sea, aud in the air where fighting is now going ou, as well as those where some day men will have to go. into action in Europe, Africa and Asia; if we gauge the bulk of the means of which our enemies already dispose or may dispose, and lastly, if we take into account their central position, which is much more favourable for rapid concentrations of effort than that of the free peoples, separated by immense distances, then, we are led to believe that we will need such quantities of material as would once have been considered astronomical, but which are only commonplace when compared with the area involved, the issue at stake, and the possibilities. Great Effort Needed.

“It will perhaps lie an action of 100,000. tanks, combined with that of 100,000 planes, and supplied by 50,000,000 tons of shipping, which will cause the enemy mechanized, system to crumble, and with it the whole edifice of German tyranny. It is obvious that such an effort for production is within the realms of possibility-for the .group of nations which still possess a vast majority of the world's resources.

“Lxit us take as a basis.of production the figures for the principal war materials in 1938, There is no doubt that as far as iron and aluminium are concerned the balance is practically equal. The figures for oil are 260,000,(XX) tons, as against 9,000,000; for nickel, 110,000 tons, as against .3000; for tin 2,000,000 as against 20,000; for copper, 2,000,000, as .against 190,000; for rubber; 1,000,000, as against nothing; and for cotton, millions of tons, as against nothing. “The capacity of the plants in the countries which are still free is at least 100 per cent, greater. The number of skilled workmen is more than twice as great. As for unskilled labour, our resources are practically inexhaustible. In short, if by some extraordinary chance the free' peoples refrained from crushing Hitler, they would be like a giant, who prefers to submit to a dwarf rather than to stand erect.”