GOOD RESULTS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21015, 18 January 1940, Page 7

GOOD RESULTS

ECONOMIC WARFARE GOODWILL TO NEUTRALS NAZIS FEELING PINCH fOXDcIAI Wireless) (Received Jan. 18, 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 17 Economic warfare was discussed in both Houses of Parliament today. In the House of Lords the subject was raised by Viscount Cecil, who was Minister of Blockade in the last war. In the House of Commons the Minister of Economic Warfare 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. The Minister repeatedly emphasised the desire of the British Government, so far as consistent with the proper exercise of belligerent rights, to spare inconvenience and obviate hardship to neutral interests, and instanced the negotiations of different kinds now in progress with fourteen neutral Governments as evidence of the British Government’s goodwill. 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 into a vast militarised and economic machine, deliberately prepared for the waging of war. That fact, he pointed out, made Germany technically stronger than in the last war, to which, he added an important reservation; 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. Effects on Germany This forecast was given point by the signs he was able to report later in his speech of the effects of the 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 which she was feeling after two years of the last war. This was reflected in the day-to-day conditions of life. Rationing had already extended to clothing and soap. 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. 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 market, it was, the Minister argued, the export field which provided the best measure of Germany’s industrial embarrassments, and he cited as an example the fact that Germany was now exporting motor cars and bicycles without tyres to neighbouring neutral states. Steel Works Close Down He said he had reports that important steel works in Germany had suspended operations through lack of raw materials. In the basic industries there was frequently a shortage of material. 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 to be introduced for clothing of all kinds. He produced a ration card for clothing issued to persons in Czechoslovakia. It contained 100 coupons, which were to last a year, but the recipient had to give sixty coupons for one suit, two coupons for a handkerchief, and from twenty to thirty coupons for a shirt. Therefore it was pretty clear that by the end of the year a man would not be able to acquire a great deal on this ration card.

Regarding contraband control, the Minister said that thanks to naval supremacy few ships were evading control, and virtually the whole Ger- ; man imports which could be controlled by this weapon had been interrupted. Coming to the machinery for seizing German overseas exports, he said that importers overseas had little inducement to order German goods once they were subject to detention, and there were good grounds for thinking that the Allied decision to make there exports subject to seizure, as a reprisal for Germany’s illegalities at sea, had sufficed 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, and was likely to remain, small. Attempted Camouflage At the same time Germany was developing devices to camouflage those goods, and he gave a fair warning of the necessary steps being taken to check that traffic. On the more positive side of economic warfare, the Minister spoke of the close co-operation with the French mission on economic warfare in London and with the Dominions and the Governments of India and the colonies. He also described the purchases being made abroad designed to forestall the enemy or to compensate neutrals for trade losses.

He declined to give the total figures, which indeed would be misleading, but very considerable purchases had been made from many countries—in some cases representing quite new trading connections.

GERMANS ABROAD

MUST SURRENDER HOLDINGS TO GO TO REICHSBANK (United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Jan. 18, 11 a.m.) BERLIN, Jan. 17 A decree states all Germans resident in the British and French empires before the outbreak of the war must surrender their holdings in neutral countries to the Reichsfrank.