ECONOMIC WAR

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21449, 13 September 1939, Page 14

ECONOMIC WAR

Britain’s New Ministry Pressure on Germany One of the most interesting and im- . : portant war-time announcements yet j 1 made is the official statement in the 1 cable messages that the newly-created i British Ministry of Economic Warfare i < is now in full operation. < The aim of the Ministry, it is stated. ' i is to disorganise the economy of the j enemy and thus prevent- him from ef- i , fectively maintaining his War Min- i; istry’s activities. It will have the i« widest scope. The Ministry of Eco- j < nomic Warfare must be regarded as a I vital offensive arm complementary to ’ ■ the operation of the three services. J However (says the “Dominion”), every j effort will take account of the legiti- « mate trading needs of neutral countries. Tlie organisation has been in progress I ] for two years, and there is a complete ! ( staff, drawn partly from the foremost | I experts. I Little doubt is entertained by stu- I | dents of the vast literature dealing I ( with the economic and naval side of I j the Great War that it was chiefly cur i trade with Germany’s neutral neigh- j ‘ bours that undermined for more than [ I two and a-half years the power of the < j British Navy, “succoured our enemies | * j and nearly led to our defeat.” j This aspect of the Great War is. j ; perhaps, most convincingly dealt with I , | by Rear-Admiral M. W. W. P. Con- I \ I sett. C.M.G.. in his book. ‘ The Triumph of Unarmed Forces.” in which jhe gives an amazing “account of the J transactions by which Germany dur- £ ing the Great War was able to obtain £ supplies prior to her collapse under j the pressure of economic forces.” Rear- ! Admiral Consett was British naval at- 5 tache in Scandinavia (including Hol- * land) from 1912 to 1919. and was naval adviser to the Supreme Council in 1920. I He writes with intimate first-hand c knowledge of the abuses of neutral trade in Scandinavia during the war ' years. i Grim Silent Struggle Asserting that the war was “pro- j 1 I longed far beyond the limits of neces- I e sity,” Rear-Admiral Consett says that I i lit is certain that in 1914 Germany was s j “neither prepared nor equipped for a struggle of four years' duration.” Eng- f land’s entiy into the war and the battle ! t i of the Marne had placed all hope of j s lan early decision for Germany out of ! i the question. The problem with which ' f I Germany was faced from the very be- * i ■ ginning was an economic one. She 5 I was not self-supporting, and the sup- t 1 plies upon which she depended for 5 1 feeding, clothing, and munitioning her t ' armies and for supporting her civil 5 1 population had to come from overseas. | I The four years’ Great War was a t I struggle for the mastery of these sup- 1 ; plies. “The clash of arms, the destruc- : tion of cities and even the passing sub- j 1 jugation of smaller nations, were not r 1 the sole determining factors of an issue s :in which one-half of the more highly 5 organised nations of the earth sought t to impose their will upon the other half, j . . . The real struggle itself was un- r accompanied by any single act of vio- , lence; yet it was more deadly in tis passive relentlessness than the military’ forces and engines of war. on which ' the whole attention of the world was 1 riveted.” For more than two years Germany 1 maintained an unequal economic I struggle with us; she suffered famine, but she won through. “In 1917.” says Admiral Consett, “she sealed her own I doom by declaring war upon all mer- I | chant vessels in the waters round the ! British Isles; for by this act trade with : the outside world overseas, was virtually stopped. British trade with Ger- ' many’s neutral neighbours, which had i continued throughout the war. ceased.; America entered the arena, and Ger- | many was reduced to starvation; her ; : troops left the fighting line in search , of food.” Supplies from Neutrals ! The overseas supplies that reached i Germany went mainly through Scan- I t I dinavia and Holland, passing through | I two stages, one by sea and one by land. 1 I 1 r Over a certain part of neutral trade we j r I possessed belligerent rights, sanctioned i < ; by international law. treaty, and con- j „ j vention. The rules of naval warfare f I under which Britain had fought in the 1. ; past gave her great power over neutral j j trade with the enemy; but at her own i j suggestion they had been made to suf- 1 ! for fundamental alteration in the long | c 1 period of peace after the Napoleonic wars. Much of our belligerent power ! had been surrendered voluntarily; and “ I the Navy r , on the strength of which the power to enforce these rights depended. ' had therefore been rendered partially 2 impotent. During the war. and while s the enemy was receiving the benefit of our surrendered rights, a series of efforts was made to retrieve them and 1 bring into use the rules of the past for ( the conduct of our naval warfare. This I J policy brought us into conflict with K America. The new rules, of our own t making, were chiefly contained in the I Declaration of Paris <1856> and the Ij; Declaration of London «1909». Having passed the scrutiny of the 1 1 British Fleet and found sanctuary’ in ' Scandinavia, merchandise in its second ; stage was free from further belligerent j interference. Nevertheless, there were at our command very powerful and c effective coercive measures by which I*■ it could be controlled and which could j not be disregarded with impunity. I ' j c Supplies for Germany | Had there been certainty that our j ' supplies would neither reach nor in- * c directly benefit Germany, there was ‘ f every reason that trade with Scandi- j' navia should have been encouraged. • But from the very’ beginning, till well i 1 into 1917, goods poured into Germany £ from Scandinavia, and for more than , 1 two years Scandinavia received from ' 1 the British Empire and the allied ! 1 countries stocks which, together with ! 1 those received from neutral countries. | i

vastly exceeded all pre-war quantities and literally saved Germany from starvation. During the dispute between Great Britain and the United States regarding our right to interfere with American trade, the latter country was able to -show that Britain's trade with Scandinavian countries had increased to a vast extent. The war brought to Scandinavia a period of unprecedented prosperity. During 1915 and 1916 those countries received supplies in excess of all previous quantities. There were times when meat was so scarce in Copenhagen <due to exports to Germany) that butchers’ shops had to shut down. Special fast trains packed with fish, the staple article of diet among many Danes, carried it to Germany when fish was unprocurable in Denmark. Incidentally, the trains were run on British coal and the fishing tackle was supplied by Great Britain. Swedish spindles were idle when the wharves and quays of Swedish ports were choked with cetton for Germany. Coffee, the favourite beverage of the Swede, was unobtainable in Swedish restaurants at a time when Sweden was exporting large quantities of coffee to Germany. When Germany was in the grip of hunger, and food riots had to lie quelled by the military’, disaster was averted in 1916 only by the prodigious supplies that entered from Scandinavia. This position was finally ended in 1917 after the entry of America into the war. Space forbids further mention of the terrible economic pressure exerted from then onward till Germany’s final collapse in November, 1918. The newly-organised Ministry of Economic Warfare will prevent the mistakes of the Great War, and will enable British sea power to be exerted to its fullest extent.