POSSIBLE LEAK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 14, 17 January 1941, Page 8

POSSIBLE LEAK

BLOCKADE OF GERMANY

SUPPLIES THROUGH RUSSIA

CLOSE WATCH KEPT

(British Official Wlrrte**.)

RUGBY, January 15.

The problem of supplies reaching Russia across the Pacific which have the effect of enabling her to increase exports to Germany of goods of value to the aggressors has not escaped the notice of the Ministry of Economic Warfare. A recent statement by an American publicist emphasising the importance of aid which United States producers and industrialists may be indirectly affording the Axis Powers at the very moment that they, in common with their fellow-citizens, are approving the policy of giving the utmost direct aid to Britain and the other countries fighting aggression has drawn attention anew to this question here as well as in the United States. What is happening'may be seen in the statistics of cotton imports into the Soviet Union from the United States. In the last few months for which figures are available Russia imported from the United States twice as much cotton as she normally takes in a full year from all sources. OBLIGATIONS TO GERMANY. It is obvious that the obligations which Russia assumed to Germany under the recent commercial agreements could not be fully implemented out of her own resources^-unless, indeed, Russians themselves are to go, short for the benefit of Hitler's war I machine. What is known of Russian policy does not suggest that that is an object for which the Russian Government would be inclined to ask its people to make a sacrifice, however desirous they may be to see Germany's urgent war needs bring advantage to Russo-German trade. Therefore, it is to be expected after the new agreement that Russia will seek imports of commodities, notably oil, grain, and cotton, which will release equivalent quantities for exchange against German manufactures. This may also explain reports that Russia is mobilising a fleet of merchant ships to carry produce from the Americas to Vladivostok. The Ministry of Economic Warfare is known to be watching carefully developments along these lines, and it may be assumed that the particular aspect of the problem, regarding which the American publicist has been warning his7 countrymen, will not be over-1 looked in consultations between the British representatives at Washington and the United States authorities. The Ministry of Economic Warfare has always made it clear that its policy is to take counter-steps wherever necessary to forestall any major leak in the contraband control.