Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, FEB. 13, 1936. RAW MATERIALS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 64, 13 February 1936, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, FEB. 13, 1936. RAW MATERIALS.

In tlie House of Commons, last week, Mr George Lansbury (Lab.) raised an important question as to raw materials. He suggested that an international conference should be summoned through the League of Nations to deal with such matters as the necessity for access to raw materials and markets, and for migration. This is quite a recently developed problem, and was first mentioned in the House of Commons by Sir Samuel Hoarc, when he was Foreign Minister. Sir Samuel then stated quite correctly that it was not the lack of raw materials, but the lack of funds on the part of some nations to purchase what they require. Wealth in the raw lies scattered capriciously in the world. Most of it is found in large quantities in small areas, but the producers of th e raw material do not hoard the same or impede its distribution. The countries that are really in need of certain raw materials are Italy, Japan and Germany, and none has been hindered from obtaining supplies. Sanctions, of course, have affected Italy in recent months, but prior to that she was free to buy all that she needed. The trouble is not a scarcity of raw materials, but a question of finance, and that again is the outcome of the war, and the development of exchange restriction. Did Mussolini start the Ethiopian adventure for the sake of raw materials, or to divert the attention of the Italian people from the seriousness of the internal conditions '{

The coveted raw materials are oil, rubber, copper and tin, all of which are ul great demand, not for purposes of peaceful industry, but for war equipment. Oil is to-day tire most important of the raw materials. The world is dependent on oil. It is the sinew maintaining modern industry and modern warfare. The United States controls oil. America produces about 75 per cent, of tne world’s total production. She also controls vast copper resources. Nine years ago Half of the world’s copper supplies came from reserves in Arizona. Britain monopolises rubber, and expects witliin a measurable distance of time to be independent of American copper, huge deposits of the metal having been discovered in Rhodesia. Canada yields practically all the nickel used. Australia and New Zealand lead in wool production. But of all the raw materials petrol is now the most important. An army moves on its petrol tanks; that is why home production of petrol is being fostered in every country, and why there is such an eager search for substitutes. It was found some time ago that oil and petrol can be obtained from coal. Italy is trying to squeeze oil from seeds. Germany is spending considerable sums on research into alcohol fuel from wood. Large-scale prospecting is about to commence in England, following the recent issue of licenses by the Board of' Trade, geological studies having justified test drilling. Britain, in 1934, produced about 54,500,000 gallons of oil by a process of distillation from coal, and also imported 2,752,036,000 gallons of petroleum and products. Up to October last she imported 1,146,066,000 gallons. It came across the seas in tankers from America, Iraq, Russia, Malaya, _ Venezuela, the Dutch East Indies, Persia, Mexico, Peru and Rumania. The largest consignments came from companies under British control, but the wells were on foreign soil. London buses alone in 1934 used between 40,000,000 and 50,000,000

gallons.' Fifteen years ago England consumed approximately six times less petrol than she did in 1935. Important decisions affecting the reorganisation of the forces, especially the mechanisation of the greater part of the cavalry, and the creation of more air squadrons, mean greater consumption of petrol. Now building for the Navy is to be speeded up, and more warships mean more petrol. Apart from what is passing into consumption there must be many thousand million gallons held in reserve in all the principal countries.