SUPPLIES FOR GERMANY

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 January 1941, Page 8

SUPPLIES FOR GERMANY

RUSSIAN PURCHASES QUERIED [BY CABLE —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.] RUGBY, January 15. The problem of supplies reaching Russia across the Pacific which may have the effect of enabling her to increase her 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 the aid which United States producers and industrialists may be indirectly affording the Axis Powers at the very moment they, in common with their fellow citizens, are approving the policy of giving the utmost direct aid to Britain and 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 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. It is obvious that the obligations which Russia has assumed to Germany under the recent commercial agreements could not be fully implemented out of her own resources—unless, indeed, the Russians themselves are to go short for the benefit of Herr Hitler’s war 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 sacrifices, however desirous it may be to see Germany’s urgent wax’ needs bring advantage to RussianGerman 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 manufacturers. 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 his countrymen will not be overlooked in consultations between British representatives at Washington and United States authorities.

FRENCH CONCESSION BERNE, January 15. War material brought into Switzerland by French troops and interned here is being handed over to Germany. Vichy has requested that material of the Forty-Fifth French Army Corps should be handed over to Germany instead of being returned.