LESS GERMAN COAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 9, 11 January 1941, Page 7

LESS GERMAN COAL

BIG REDUCTION IN OUTPUT RESULT OF AIR RAIDS I British Official Wireless. 1

RUGBY, Jan. 8. Information reaching the British Ministry of Economic Warfare reveals that there has been a tremendous fall in coal production in the Ruhr. One estimate puts the redul tion as high as 40 per cent. On the whole, however, the production of coal in Germany seems to have been 1 maintained and must be considered adequate, even taking into account the position of the Ruhr. Such -coal shortage in Germany as there is evidence of is the result of failures in the distribution of supplies. The British bombers have contributed to these by disturbing night shunting operations and interfering with railway traffic. The reductions of working hours through blacx-out conditions has also increased the track . disorganisation. There is in Germarf a grave shortage of railway trucks ' anq wagons. Supplies for Italy. The Nazis undertook to supply Italy I with 1,000,000 tons of coal a month, .’and up to last September the commitiment appears to have been surprisingly well fulfilled. Since then, howiever, the Ministry of Economic Warfare has had evidence to show a considerable falling off in the German supplies to Italy. The German exports of coal to other countries has i decreased by 10 to 15 per cent, j In Germany, too, the coke problem | seems to be acute. There has been a [Shortage of coke since 1938, and since I then there has been something like 20 per cent, reduction in the available supplies. The German authorities recently found it necessary to [ appeal to housewives to mix coal and I coke in proportion of one part to five.