THE TOTAL BLOCKADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 58, 5 September 1940, Page 12

THE TOTAL BLOCKADE

ECONOMIC WAR

OPERATING WELL

EFFECTS-ON ENEMY

REVIEW IN FIRST YEAR

(British Official Wireless.) (Received September 5, noon.) RUGBY, September 4. The first year of the economic war against Germany has been one of considerable development in the early technique and many adaptations to changing conditions brought about by the German seizure of neutral territory in Europe and by the defection of the Petain Government. In the first phase of all, the machinery of contraband control was devised, and later that of enemy export control. Naval patrols diverted shipping to bases where they were examined, detained, or released by order of the contraband and enemy export committees in London. At the same time the Ministry of Economic Warfare was concerned to make the control as little inconvenient as possible to neutral traders and shipping companies. The second phase was the negotiation of war. tirade agreements with the Governments of neutrals. Agreements were concluded with most countries adjacent to Germany, and many others. Meanwhile, in the Balkans, pre-emptive purchases were being made of goods which would otherwise have . gone to Germany, and in the Americas the navicert system was introduced. Since the German invasion of April, May, and June the scope and methods of the economic campaign have been fundamentally changed. Germany has added to her stocks, but the countries which she invaded depend, as she her.self depends, very largely on imports from overseas. There is now a total blockade of German-controlled territory—a blockade which can be operated and is bound to be very effective. But the machinery of the agreements is out of date and the old style of contraband; control is impracticable. The blockade has been transferred "from seas-to quays." THE NAVICERT SYSTEM. The navicert system has been made compulsory and extended to cover complete cargoes and the ships that' carry them. The total number of applications since the system was instituted is 63,525. In August, after it was made compulsory, there were nearly three times as many applications as in July. During the first year of the war the contraband committee held 348 meetings and the enemy export committee 210. The contraband committee considered the cases of 2979 ships and ordered the seizure of 763,344 tons of cargo suspected of enemy destination. The main items of cargo seized in the war area are as follows:—Metals and manufactures, 236,785 tons; petroleum and allied products, 182,820 tons; food products and beverages, 83,593 tons; oil seeds, 74,499 ■ tons; feeding stuffs, 39,714 tons; textiles, 37,007 tons; non-metallic minerals, 34,348 tons. The goods actually seized represent, of course, only a very small fraction of what Germany has lost owing to the British contraband control. Greater Germany's imports for 1938, of which far, the greater part were carried by sea^ and which, therefore, could not now reach her, included 5,940,200 tons of petroleum products, 340,000 tons of copper, 330,876 tons of cotton, 139,432 tons of wool, 100,490 tons of rubber, and very important quantities" of chrome, molybdenite, nickel, and wolfram ores. . GERMANY'S DIFFICULTIES. While the authorities here have never sought to exaggerate the role of the economic weapon, figures such as these show how impossible it is for Germany to replace the greater part of her former sea-borne trade. Her supplies of oil, materials used for hardening steelj rubber, and copper are notably short, and she cannot live for ever on the stocks which she lias accumulated or plundered from the occupied territories. These countries are in the main liabilities to Germany once their stocks of her deficiency materials have been exhausted. They can themselves supply none of Germany's chief deficiencies, and will have to be maintained at Germany's expense, at however low a level. Those in the best position to judge do not question that the total blockade is operating' well. It is not in doubt that Germany and Italy are extremely vulnerable in the long run to its effects. At the same time, the Royal Air Force, which has at its disposal all the information available through the intelligence services of the Ministry of Economic Warfare, is raining blows on the vital stores and industrial plant of Italy and Germany. This is economic warfare in the most direct form, and at the hands of the Royal Air Force it has been immensely effective.