SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Evening Star, Issue 22526, 19 December 1936, Page 21

SELF-SUFFICIENCY

GERMANY'S FOUR-YEAR PLAN , CO-OPTING EVERYONE Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, December 18. (Received December ID, at 11 a.m.) The Berlin correspondent of ‘ The Times 1 says : “ Germany’s fonr-yenr self-sufficiency plan was worked out years ago by leading military authorities as part of a general process of rearmament. There are indeed signs in Germany that attention is now turning to the preparation of the whole of the population, especially women, for the part they may ho called on to till in wartime, so that trained soldiers and experts may be released immediately for service at the front. “ General Goering, Dr Schacht, Herr Kibbentrop, and others have consistently represented Germany's fouryear plan as something Germany had not wanted, and had had it forced on her by events—notably by being kept without colonies—but the accumulation of evidence points to another conclusion. “This is now strikingly confirmed by an article in the ‘ Deutsche Bergwerks Zeitung,’ the organ of the Ruhr heavy industry, by General Thomas, general staff officer in charge of the ‘ Wehrwritschaft,’ or ‘ War Economy ’ staff at the War Ministry. General Thomas describes the system as tho inevitable result of the lessons of the last; war, which,, he says, proved that economic efficiency was just as important as military efficiency.”