POWER ALCOHOL

Waikato Times, Volume 195, Issue 22513, 23 November 1944, Page 7

POWER ALCOHOL

DOMINION PRODUCTION? REHABILITATION ASPECT (By Ajax No. 1) The possibilities of producing power alcohol in New Zealand have been referred to from time to time, but little progress has been made, notwithstanding the fact that in several other countries great reliance is placed on power alcohol. It does not seem apparent that with the thousands of servicemen returning to New Zealand from time to time, for discharge from the armed forces, the rehabilitation authorities will have a man-sized job in placing them back in useful occupations, and any avenue for employing men should be fully explored. Wartime Difficulty During the war years there has been 'extreme difficulty in getting supplies of motor spirit from overseas, and severe restriction of available supplies has been necessary. All motor spirit used in New Zealand was imported, from as far away as the Black Sea, Persian Gulf, Venezuela, United States, Borneo and ether countries. It has been authoritatively stated that it will be several years after the conclusion of armed hostilities before normal supplies can be obtained in New Zealand from those countries, and therefore it seems an opportune time to advance the claims for producing power alcohol in the Dominion for use as a mixture in motor vehicles, thus ekeing out the ordinary petrol supplies. It might surprise many people to learn that during the past three or four years French potatoes and wine were helping to keep German, tanks and self-propelled artillery rolling in North Africa, Italy, Russia, France and other occupied countries. That fact has long been known to the authorities, but not to the general reader. Cablegrams from London a year ago stated that the German High Command had bought the greater part of the French potato harvest with paper money, which was part of the 500,000,000 francs charged daily as the so-called cost of occupation. At the date of cabling 300,000,000 bushels of potatoes had been sent to Germany for the manufacture of power alcohol. French wines of well known names were also providing fuel for German lorries, and more than 500,000 gallons of the wine grown in France had been requisitioned for distillation into industrial alcohol. • Germany’s Industry A few months later another cable from London stated that reports that Germany was short of oil were ridiculed in well-informed quarters. Germany was at that time building further synthetic plants, some of them capable of producing a million tons a years. These plants were in the farming districts of Silesia and Pomerania, both west of Berlin and therefore difficult for the Royal Air Force to attack. Russia very nearly lost her oil supplies from the Caucasus, and only heroic efforts pushed the invading forces back, month after month, until today the Nazis have lost the whole of occupied Russia and a great mileage of Rumania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and the Baltic States. The huge oilfields at Ploesti and neighbourhood have been taken from Nazi control. But that does not mean that Germany is being forced to surrender for lack of that essential to transport, motor spirit. She has greatly increased her ability to rely on power alcohol developed from sugar beet, potatoes and other vegetables that are being grown intensively over a vast area. A year ago synthetic plants in Germany were consuming one-third of Germany’s coal output, and huge oil dumps had been built in areas then untouched by the Royal Air Force bombing. From time to time since then we have been told of some of the dumps being bombed successfully, but it is admitted by authorities that there are still vast stores in various parts of Germany. Non-Military Consumption When Montgomery and his men invaded north-western France correspondents with them expressed surprise that the people appeared reasonably well fed, and there was no very apparent shortage of food, while transport was not so difficult as in some of the Allied countries. Petrol for non-military consumption was

fairly plentiful. This all adds up to make relevant the question: Where does all the motor spirit come from? The answer is synthetic plants fed by coal from the Ruhr and other districts. plus huge supplies of vegetables such as sugar beet, potatoes, maize and cane. The production of potatoes and sugar beet for conversion into power alcohol has been a thriving industry in several European countries for many years, notably in Czechoslovakia, where the farmers made the point an election issue by declaring that prospective candidates for parliamentary honours must declare for the fostering and introduction of power alcohol, otherwise the farmers would not vote for them. Now for New Zealand. Ask any serviceman returned from the Middle East and he will declare that the famed Afrika Korps, Rommel’s main fighting force, became mobile on synthetic or power alcohol, and that fact cost many splendid New Zealand lives. Yet we in New Zealand cannot realise the fact that power alcohol has a place in industry that has ample room for development. We New Zealanders are content to be denied the power and convenience of locomotion that could be produced in our own country. In these days of acute shipping shortage—farmers cannot get sufficient rock phosphates for top-dressing their pastures—the saving on gallonage in imports is a factor not to be disregarded, while from a motorists’ viewpoint there is a case for investigation and action on the results of the investigation.