ECONOMIC WARFARE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 16, 19 January 1940, Page 6

ECONOMIC WARFARE

EFFECTS IN REICH | EVIDENCES OF STRAIN RAW SUPPLIES SHORT INTERRUPTION OF IMPORTS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. Jan. 17. ’ Economic warfare was discussed in < both Houses of Parliament to-day. In ’ the House of Lords the subject was ' raised by Lord Cecil, who was Minister of Blockade in the last war. In the House of Commons the Minister of Economic Warfare. Mr. Cross, made a statement on the progress of the attack upon the enemy's industrial. financial and economic structure. aimed at crippling and enfeebling his armed forces, and on the results so far observed. Mr. Cross repeatedly emphasised the desire of the British Government, so far as is consistent with the proper exercise of belligerent rights, to spare « inconvenience and obviate hardship to neutral interests, and instanced nego- , tiations of different kinds now in pro- , gress with fourteen neutral Governments as evidence of the British Government's good will. The Minister began his review by recalling that the Allies were fighting a country in which the whole people had been moulded and hammered into a vast militarised economic machine deliberately prepared for the waging of war. That fact, he pointed out. ■ made Germany technically stronger ■ than in the last war. He added the < important reservation that it also made her more brittle than before. ; Accordingly, he prophesied that economic events in Germany would take a different course from the last war. Feeling the Pinch This forecast was given point by signs he was able to report later in his speech of the effects of economic warfare on Germany so far. * He claimed that at the end of four and a-half months of war Germany was experiencing the same degree of economic strain she was feeling after two years of the last war. This ra . reflected in day-to-day condi' of life. Rationing had alre - on extended to clothing and sun; The severe cold had created demands under the weight of which coal distribution had broken down. There were already significant indications of an abnormal desire on the part of the German’ population to convert currency into goods—a sure sign of fears of inflation. A black market in food was growing up in a number of centres. The shortage of petroleum, iron, copper, wool. oils, fats and other commodities was making itself felt in industrial conditions. Since export was given priority | over the domestic mar'ket. it was. Mr. | Cross argued, th® export field which i provided the best measure of Germany’s industrial embarrassments, and h* 3 cited as an example the fact that Germany was now exporting motor-cars and bicycles tn neighbouring neutrals without tyres. He said he had reports that important steel works in Germany had suspended operations through lack of raw materials. Rationing of Clothing In the basic industries there was frequently a shortage of material, j Practically all Germany's supply of raw cotton and 85 per cent, of her wool were obtained normally from overseas, and the present textile situation in Germany was such that rationing had had to be introduced for clothing of all kinds. He produced a ration card for clothing issued to persons, in Czechoslovakia. It contained a hundred coupons which were to last a year, but the recipient had to give 60 coupons for one suit, two coupons for a handkerchief and from 20 to 30 for a shirt. Therefore, it was pretty clear that by the end of a year a man would not be able to acquire a great deal on this ration card. Regarding 'contraband control, the j Minister said that, thanks to the naval | supremacy, few ships were evading : control and virtually the whole of the I German imports which could be con- I trolled by this weapon had hern inter- I •anted. ’ Cut in Overseas Exports Coming to the machinery for seiz- r mg German overseas exports, he said I that importers overseas had little in- * ducement to order German goods once 1 they were subject to detention, and I there were good grounds for thinking i j that the Allied decision to make these . exports subject to seizure as a reprisal for Germany's illegalities at sea had 'Ufliced in itself to cut off the overwhelming bulk of her overseas exports. The result was that the quantity of goods of German origin unloaded after examination was small ' and was likely to remain so. At the same time. Germany was developing 1 devices to camouflage those goods, and he gave fair warning that necessary teps were being taken to check that 1 raffic. On the more positive side of eco- ' tomic warfare, the Minister spoke of the close co-operation with the French Mission on economic warfare in Lon- 1 lon and with the Dominions and the Governments of India and the i colonies. He also described purchases icing made abroad designed to fore--tall the enemy or to compensate neu- ’ trals for trade losses. He declined to < give the total figures, which, indeed, i would be misleading, but said that ; very considerable purchases had been t made from many countries, in some •ases representing quite new trading connections. ENLARGEMENT OF WAR CABINET URGED MOKE ATTENTION TO ECONOMIC WARFARE. I British Ofticial Wireless. J Received Jan. IS, 5.5 p.m. RUGBY. Jan. 17. In both the House of Lords and the House of Commons debates on economic warfare, several speakers argued the need for the appointment t of a Minister in the War Cabinet with

the responsibility of co-ordinating the a wartime economic policy. s Lord Swinton thought that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Treasury were not adequate substi- o lutes for a special Minister. In the House of Commons. Dr. Hugh e Dalton said that one of the weak- a nesses of the conduct of the war was t a lack of one supreme co-ordinating \ economic Minister. “We are not con- n vinced that in the War Cabinet in ] which you have four Ministers concerned in the conduct of the war in the military sense, it is sufficient merely to have the Chancellor of the Exchequer representing economic interests.” he said. “We shall not develop maximum efficiency in the conduct of the war until we give to economic warfare and economic activities generally a more substantial place in the War Cabinet than they now hold.” Mr. Harold Macmillan, a Conservative backbencher, said economic warfare was a not less important weapon c than control of domestic economic * activities in order to exert the full r economic power of the country for victory. He averred that the differcnee between a speedy and delayed .. victory might be the difference of 1 the survival or submergence of civilised standards and ideals. In the House of Lords. Lord Sankey, replying for the Government, gave 1 an assurance to Lord Cecil, who initiated the debate, that the British Government had no intention to use the , belligerent right of economic warfare to benefit United Kingdom trade r J at the expense of the neutrals. >