BLOCKADE WAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 68, 21 March 1942, Page 5

BLOCKADE WAR

CHANGES IN BRITAIN TIGHTENING GRIP ON AXIS BATTLE OF SUPPLIES Rugby, March 19. The entry of Japan into the war had changed Britain's plans of blockade, just as her military plans had to be changed, said the Minister of Economic Warfare, Lord Selborne. Germany and Japan had complementary resources. Germany, in particular, had machine-tools and technicians, which were needed by Japan, while Japan had many raw materials of which Germany was short. There must therefore be no physical junction between the two countries in the economic any more than in the military sphere. Lord Selborne said he anticipated that Germany and Japan would make very serious attempts to achieve sea contact. The names, tonnage, and speed of at least fifteen enemy vessels in Far Eastern waters which were capable of running the blockade between the two countries without touching land were known by the Ministry. Steps would be taken to ensure that such a sea link was not achieved. The Minister said he would know when such a vessel left port, and it would then be necessary to track her down in the vast spaces of ocean. She would sail without lights and without wireless. Various raids made from this country, the Minister continued, had been largely suggested by his Ministry to the military authorities in order that certain sources of enemy supply in vulnerable positions should be destroyed. He said that there was very close co-operation between the British Government and the United States and he did not suppose that in any field of Allied warfare it was closer. There were officers of the American Government working in the building which houses his Ministry and representatives of his department wire working in Washington. Battle of Supplies

The war had now resolved itself very largely into a battle of supplies, said Lord Selborne. When he became Minister of Economic Warfare recently he was greatly surprised to find how short Germany already was of certain materials. There was far greater stringency in Germany than existed in England. This was especially so in the case of oil, rubber and textiles.

"I think it is no exaggeration to say that the blockade is making itself felt in practically every department of Axis activity,” he said. “We have a grip on the enemy in that respect that is gradually tightening. In the 1: t war, after four years, that grip strangled Germany. We have not got to that yet, of course, in two and a-halt years of war, but we are quite as advanced, if not further advanced than we were after the corresponding period pf the last war.” The oil position in Germany, particularly, said the Minister, was a great deal more difficult than it had ever been. The expenditure of oil in the Russian campaign had been vastly heavier than the Germans had calculated at the outset. Germany had not been able to expand her production in the Rumanian oilfields. The armed forces were not yet going short, but in his opinion the German Army could not continue, with the present rate of consumption of oil. lor many months unless it found new sources of supply.—B.O.W.