FOUR-YEAR PLAN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20925, 3 January 1938, Page 13

FOUR-YEAR PLAN

GERMAN SATISFACTION Summing up the results of the first year’s working of Germany’s four-year self-sufficiency plan, Colonel Loeb, of the German General Staff, who is also the head of the German War Materials Office, said that he was extremely satisfied with the result, reports the “Daily Telegraph and Morning Post.” Everything had gone according to plan, and almost every day had brought with it some new development calculated to diminish the anxieties which necessarily arose. The determination which Herr Hitler had several times expressed that the Four-year Plan should be carried through despite all obstacles had given those concerned unlimittd confidence in its success. It was too little known, said Colonel Loeb, that Germany had not only enough coal, stone, and timber to meet her requirements, but that the German subsoil also held a sufficiency of metals. There was enough iron and copper to cover Germany’s future requirements. The lack of labour, however, made it impossible to handle these supplies at the speed which the industrialisation of the country required. Barter transactions were, therefore, of great importance to reduce, as far as possible, the imports of heavy metals which had to be paid for in foreign currencies. Aluminium, magnesium, granite, porcelain, glass, wood, and the whole range of German synthetic products were available for such barter.

Tremendous Importance, said Colonel Loeb, must be attached to the new synthetic products, and it was impossible to see at present how far their use would extend. Tire organisation necessary for their production was not complete, but was proceeding rapidly. The use of wood in the manufacture of substitute materials meant replacing it as a fule by coal and peat, the use of which had consequently become a national duty for all Germans.