BRITISH INDUSTRY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23851, 30 December 1940, Page 8

BRITISH INDUSTRY

Am RAID DESTRUCTION MUCH BELOW EXPECTATION STILL MORE EFFORT NEEDED By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received December 20, 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 28 The Economist's trade supplement takes a fairly favourable view of the business position. Air raids and transport difficulties continued to hamper production, but the output, was considerably higher than might be expected for a period of intensive bombing, the paper adds. Germany had obtained results nothing like those she expected. Actual I destruction of munition factories was very small. The experience of the last few months had shown that night bombing on the present scale did not j curtail the volume of production sufficiently to cause serious anxiety. Although shipping losses were heavy, large imports of essential materials .still arrived safely, but still greater efforts were needed to speed up the turn round of ships at ports and accelerate distribution to centres oi consumption. "British industry has done wonders in improvisation in the last year." the article adds. "It has achieved a measure of success in adjusting itself to the new and difficult conditions. Progress in many directions has been vcr\ considerable, but all told our achievements in IS) 10 have not been commensurate with our needs and resources. Only a maximum effort in 1941 -will see us through a critical period." JAPAN'S RESOURCES EFFECT OF EMBARGOES URGENT STEEL PROBLEM EAST INDIES BANK AGREEMENT (Received December 20, T."> p.m.) TOKIO, Dec. 28 The Japanese Cabinet has directed a revision of the material resources mobilisation plan for the last quarter of the fiscal year, ending March .'IT, to counteract United States embargoes and pressure on trade with British Crown Colonies. It requires an additional steel output, a new rice supply plan, intensive and extensive development of ore deposits enabling the elimination of Japanese dependence on foreign scrap, and purchases of high-grade coal from China and Manchukuo. The president of the Planning Board. Mr. Naoki Hoshino. stressed the importance of speeding up the installation of ore processing machinery at the existing blast furnaces, and said: "Optimism is not warranted at a moment when Japan is on the verge of the fifth year of the China affair, and there are demands for steel in huge quantities for national defence and other purposes." It is officially stated that the Java Bank and the Yokohama Specie Bank have reached an agreement establishing current accounts in each bank which will be the only channel for future international payments, says a Batavia message. It is stated that the bank with an eventual excess credit will be entitled to purchase American dollars from the other bank.

THAILAND DISPUTE MEDIATION REJECTED (Received December 29, 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 28 It is reliably reported from Vichy that France plans to send a delegation from Indo-China to Bangkok, capital of Thailland, in an effort to settle the frontier dispute. France has rejected Japan's offer to arbitrate, declaring that she cannot accept third-party mediation. RAIL TRAGEDY WARTIME STRAIN ON DRIVER British Wireless LONDON, Dec. 27 The Ministry of Transport,, in an official report on the rail crash near Taunton on November 4, in which '27 persons were killed, states: "Ihe sole cause was an unaccountable lapse on the part of the driver. His breakdown may be partly attributed to the operating conditions in the black-out and the general strain which railway servants, in common with other members of the community, are undergoing at th« present time."

HOMES FOR EVACUEES

CHURCH LEADERS' APPEAL LONDON, Dec. 27 The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Cosmo Lang, the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Cardinal Hinsley, and the Rev. Walter Armstrong, Moderator of the Free Church Federal Council, have issued a joint appeal tor more country homes for evacuees. They admit that there have been many responses, but suggest that more homes are available. "This is clearly a matter in which Christians may be expected to give a lead and help wholeheartedly in a Christian duty," the appeal states. WORK WITH FORCES LONDON, Dec. 27 The wife of Mr. A. P. F. Chapman, former English cricket captain, is now a uniformed member of the New Zealand Y.M.C.A. Mrs. Chapman, who i> a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. H. Lowry, of Hawke's Bay, earlier ra:i a canteen for the troops with her husband. STEAMER TORPEDOED NEW YORK. Dec. 28 The Maekay Badio has reported that the British steamer Ardanbhan, of 4980 tons, was torpedoed 460 miles west of northern Scotland.