1939-01-12 — Page 28

Germany Taking Lessons From Japan's Plight

Berlin, To-day.

Major-General Thomas, Chief of the Economic Sec- tion of the Reich War Ministry, in an address

THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 12, 1989.、

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in Weimar, issued a solemn warning against STOP PRESS the increasingly frequent use of the word "Blitzkrieg" that is "lightning war", and in- sisted that, in the organisation of economic preparedness for war, despite all optimism, it would be necessary to act as though the worst possible case was certain to arise, namely a war lasting for a very long time.

JAPAN HAD LEARNED THE COURSE A WAR COULD TAKE.

General Thomas spoke of the, required in the event of a conflict. experience gained in 1938 which in his opinion had confirmed the following:

General Thomas expressed the view that the latter question would be one of the most difficult in any (1) the necessity of a uniform future war because of the intimate economic defence organisation, es- reflex effects between the front pecially for States unable to pro-and those at home. For countries duce all that a war required, the with small mineral, wealth, eco- need of such an organisation hav-nomy

in raw materials reserves

ing very greatly hampered Japan, was urgently necessary. An in- (2) the necessity of recognising crease of home production in every that the economic basis of the form and a study of the question State is just as determinative for of economic war was demanded. the conduct of war as its military "Foreign trade, must be 80 equipment, hence it is of particular | transformed," he stated, “that eco- importance that the economic pre-nomic warfare would be weakened parations for war of all possible to the greatest possible extent. opponents should be carefully Moreover active preparations must watched,

be made to answer economic war-

(3) the necessity for making due | fare with effective counter- provision for the human material (Continued at foot of Next Col.)

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As regards finance, he ex- pressed the view that the example of Japan taught particularly valu- able lessons.

"It had been shown that internal war finance is for the major part a problem of financial organisa- tion. The limits of internal war finance lie where the restriction of civilian consumption in favour of war needs becomes unfavourable.

The Japanese example had shown that internal war finance becomes the more difficult the weaker the fiscal capacity and capital reserves of the country are at the time of the outbreak of hostilities. Internal finance, how- ever, was relatively less important than the external finance,

Japan's experience showed how enormously important the posses- sion of gold and foreign exchange reserves was for payment of im- ports that could not be met by export." Trans-Ocean.

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