NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

NAZI WEAKNESS

A CHAOTIC EUROPE

THE BURDEN OF FRANCE

As the Germans open their big bombing attacks on Britain the Motherland fortifies herself in the effort to strangle Nazi ambitions of domination, as they were killed before —by the great and unceasing pressure of the blockade. It may be difficult 'and lengthy, but it is certainly an effective way of winning the war. Even today, with France reeling out of the battle and some of her resources in Nazi hands, the problem of keeping the war machine functioning remains great. This situation is possible because of the organisation of German economy. This may be summed up as follows:— Germany is deficient in many things which she cannot obtain, on the European mainland. In order to keep her industrial machine turning she has had to build up credits over the seas. In the markets of the Argentine, the United States, Brazil, and China, for example, she has created the foreign credits which have given her the things she lacks. As long as a blockade endures (and it is now tighter than, ever) she must suffer want. That situation was made clear even immediately after the occupation of Denmark. Nazis who looked forward to greater rations after the Danish invasion found their food further reduced. Four pounds of potatoes for each person was the quantity available in Berlin at the end of April. When the importance of this vegetable in Germany is realised the situation is seen to have ominous signs. i Other Rations Cut. At the same time sugar rations (previously 2.21b a month) were cut another 10 per cent. The lard ration was cut 20 per cent, and is now 6£ ounces a month. City dwellers who planned to raise vegetables found they could not purchase seeds. Fruit growers said that because of the severe winter in northern Germany their crops would be the poorest for years. Early last month further cuts came. The food' shortage continued to grow. Therefore cabbage, spinach, and cauliflowers were added to the list of rationed foods. Customers learned on May 1 that they might purchase vegetables twice a week and never two days in succession. The only other vegetables available to the public are carrots, kohlrabi, and salad greens, all of which are expected to be rationed soon. ' ■• ' Even Soldiers Complain. Simultaneously families have been exhausting the reserves which they built up in the first few months of the war and discontent with the food situation has been growing. It has not been helped by the decision of the Nazis that soldiers; in; barracks, anduhpspitals must go home and eat with their famij lies because physicians found their food in barracks and hospitals to be inadequate. Neutral sources report that for tha first time since the war began the soldiers have been grumbling about tha shortage of rations. Families made to share their meals with soldier relatives are also grumbling because the food cards and rations brought home by the troops have not been sufficient to satisfy their appetites. Food is the key to the new British strategy. Germany cannot feed herself, nor can Norway. Denmark, which looked like being a grocery for the Nazis, is rapidly having her stock slaughtered and her producing power impaired. Plundered Holland represents a gain for the moment, but France will be a burden. Economy Damaged. For the advance of the Nazi machine of conquest has seriously damaged the economy of these nations. The depopulation of whole areas, the destruction of plant and buildings, the loss of stocks of raw materials, the vanishing of overseas markets for Belgium, France, Holland, and Denmark, mean that they will quickly be a millstone around the Germans' necks. In the case of France, strongest and most self-sufficient of the States concerned, about one-twelfth of her total imports by volume and more •, than one-quarter in value In 1938 consisted of food products. They totalled 5,800,000 tons and were valued at almost 12,500,000,000 francs. France needed from abroad 39,000,000 tons of raw materials valued at 26,700,000,000 francs. J These were notably wool, raw cotton, coal and coke, oil, oil seels, copper, iron and steel, hides and skins, silk and chemicals. Much of her foreign trade was with Britain, the United States (her greatest foreign'supplier), and her colonies. Overlapping" Products. Furthermore, the trade of France is to a great extent already entangled with the trade of Germany and Italy. There are competing products for which there will be no market, and there have been close ties with other war-ravaged countries, such as Belgium, and with such countries as Argentina, Brazil, and Japan, now behind the steel wall of the blockade. The case of the Netherlands is different. That country, a useful farm, was very largely a point of arrival for goods for Germany from the outside world. The war quickly imposed a severe strain on Dutch economy, and the Nazi invasion and confiscations have intensified it. \ , ■ ■ ■ In Europe, then, the Germans face the problem of re-establishing the populations of the L conquered countries in the districts from which they have fted, of getting them into productive work again, of feeding them while they are still disorganised and until they begin to earn money, of providing the raw materials for the industries to use, and of finding some markets for those products after they are made. Cannot Live by Loot. However much the Nazis may like the notion, they cannot live by loot alone. They cannot allow the conquered countries to starve, for that will be to court pestilence which may immediately spread to Germany. And in doing this work they have to face a winter which is going to be on« of the hardest in Europe for a long time, because the bad weather of recent months has destroyed much of tjje autumn-sown grain, and becaust it" is already known that the harvest is to be poor. ! It is for this potent ally of winter, most feared by the Nazis, that th* armed camp of Britain Is waiting.