AXIS COUNTRIES
Survey Of Economic
Conditions
NEW YORK, January 3. Japan had passed the peak of her industrial plant expansion but was undoubtedly able to increase her production of armaments for defence in 1944. stated the Office of Economic Warfare, in an analysis of economic conditions in the Axis countries.
Shipping was the chief economic weakness preventing Japan from fully exploiting her conquests. The measure of Japan’s war production was her prePearl Harbour industrial plant rather than the raw material resources of her recent conquests. Nevertheless Japan’s economy appeared to be capable of supporting military activity for an indefinite period at the present scale of the Allied operations against Japan. The German economy could not possibly be expanded to meet the increasing pressure of the Allied offensives in 1944. although the food situation was still much better than in 1918. The shortages of oil and rubber were critical, and the manpower shortage could no longer be eased by further recruitment of foreign labour.
The report concluded that economic factors alone, without accelerated military offensives, could not be expected to cause Germany’s collapse in 1944.
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Bibliographic details
Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22785, 8 January 1944, Page 5
Word Count
184AXIS COUNTRIES Timaru Herald, Volume CLV, Issue 22785, 8 January 1944, Page 5
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