MANPOWER IN GERMANY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24040, 11 August 1941, Page 6

MANPOWER IN GERMANY

The fact that Germany lies sprawled over Europe, from the frontier provinces of Russia to the Pyrenees, imposes a heavy strain on German manpower for the further conduct of the war. This point is emphasised by the remark of a foreign diplomat, recently transferred from Berlin to Washington, that more than 90 per cent of ablebodied German males have been mobilised for the growing struggle. Here is evidence of a desperate gamble. To equip and supply a modern army is a much more formidable task than it was in the last war, so much so that the economists estimate that it now requires at least five workers at home to support one soldier in the field. The fact that Germany controls the output, both industrial and agricultural, of a round dozen subject countries does not lessen her present difficulties. She is employing ruthlessly the forced labour of conquered countries and is organising in many of the occupied territories a greater productive effort than they have ever previously attained. But the whole top-heavy structure must be imposing a tremendous strain on German administrative personnel and an equally heavy strain on transport. For the maintenance of his armies, Hitler has forced on Europe the living and working conditions of total war. He opposes the free and vigorous industrial effort of the British Empire and the United States with a new form of slavery. Manpower must thus become one of his most pressing problems and becomes ever more pressing as the immense front in Russia absorbs daily more and more of his resources.