1939-11-18 — Page 11

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1

THE CHINA MAIL, NOVEMBER 18, 1939

NO SCHEMING BY

GERMANY WILL DEFEAT

THE ALLIES' BLOCKADE

晕 (Continued from Page 10.)

are now cut off. How much she will get from Sweden, if she continues to destroy Swedish shipping, is an inter- esting speculation.

As for other metals-copper, tin, nickel, aluminium, chromium, tung- sten, manganese and mercury-Ger- many must obtain all, or almost all, she consumes from other countries.

Though contiguous States may supply

some of them the main sources are outside Europe and thus subject to the full of the blockade.

RUBBER, TEXTILES AND OIL

It needs no proof that the mechani- sation of armies has made rubber a munition of war of the first im- portance. Such a shortage as was in- convenient to the German forces in 1918 would now be crippling. Ger- many has tried to produce synthetic rubber. The value of the process may be estimated from the fact that she has still been importing four-fifths of her consumption.

She had better fortune with the manufacture of artificial textiles, but still obtained three-fifths of her needs from abroad. Not much cotton is grown in Europe, and cotton has its uses in the production of explosives.

Whatever else the Nazi leaders hope to get from the Soviet they, must know that it will never provide enough oil to save them.

In

terms of supply, what has Nazism gained by its pact with Bol- shevism? Russia can send cercals and which Germany sugar, products of

will not be in need till drafts on her man-power strip the farms of lab- ouri The only war materials which Russia has to sell are oil and man- ganese, and no great quantity of those can be transported, even if Germany could pay for them.

Months before the Nazi war dis- turbed food production in Eastern Moscow announced that Russian agri- culture had no butter, eggs or bacon to export. It does not produce any form of those fat-yielding materials, such as oil seeds, and whale oil, of which Germany stands in desperate need.

Russia, therefore, cannot, even if she would, contribute anything to the Nazi Reich's capacity for resisting the blockade. Of further supply of the ma- terials vital to modern mechanised war Germany was deprived irretrievably a month ago. Stocks of some of the foodstuffs necessary for the mainten- ance of energy--butter, cheese and fats of all kinds-must

already be

DOUBTFUL NEUTRAL SUPPLIES

Oil supply is now a crucial factor in war by air, land and sea. Germany | falling short. produced, chiefly by distillation from coal, rather less than a third of her peace-time requirements, which were 7,000,000 tons. Petrol rationing has

just impressed upon us that war vast- ly increases a nation's normal con- sumption of oil. Such a campaign as that waged by Germany in Poland must have made heavy demands on stocks. If Germany's war needs were thrice those of peace-some estimates have been as high as 20,000,000 tons she would have to import as much, as 17,500,000 tons.

Where can she get that quantity? The German people have been told fairy tales about the Polish

oil wells. If that small field can be work- ed on the same scale as before the in- vasion Germany might obtain from it as much as 500,000 tons a year.

Frenetic struggles have been made by German diplomacy to extract from Rumania as much oil as possible. The urgency was the measure of the need. But if the whole oil output of Ru- mania were poured into Germany a supposition far from realisation-it would only contribute, on last year's figures, 6,500,000 tons.

For some time past Germany has been collecting as big an oil reserve as she could finance and provide with safe storage. The highest estimate of the quantity is 4,000,000 tons. Thus in the first year of war Germany's supplies, including home production and war reserves, would not exceed 6,500,000 tons, to which figure might have to be added such further amounts as Germany might succeed in obtain ing from the former Polish oilfields in Galicia (now under Russian con- trol) and Rumania.

Though the whole of the reserve were devoted to one year there would still be a heavy deficiency.

The German people will be told that the beneficence of Soviet Russia has

saved that awkward situation. Herr Hitler should adapt the frantic lover's. prayer. "Ye gods,

abolish only time and space, and make a Nazi happy."

LÍMITS TO RUSSIAN HELP

We may anticipate that, as in the last war, the rulers of Germany will have recourse to any means which they dare employ for extracting pro- duce from neutral countries. But their chances of success are now small.

The Reich's ability to pay is more than doubtful. Barter has been her only method of purchase in peace. In war, as her industries break down for lack of raw material, that must soon fail. Credit she has long had none. Friendship or favour from any neu- tral country for the tyranny which has ravished Austria and slovakia and Poland is out of the question.

Czecho-

Things are what they are. The Nazi leaders cannot long deceive their peo- ple now that they have challenged the physical conditions of the world. Its inexorable forces will decide the con- flict. Sea power, still wielded by Bri- tain and her allies, the deadliest of national weapons, has assured victory as of old,

i

SHE 'SWUNG IT' ON HITLER

the

The woman who bamboozled Hitler

and rescued a woman and her child from a Nazi concentration camp, told the House of Commons how she did

it.

She is Mrs. Tate, Conservative M.P. for Frome.

"I understand the psychology of the German people," she said. "I am the only person in this country who has

been able to get two people out of a German concentration camp.

"I did it without any introduction from this country, by meeting and bamboozling someone in close con- tact with Herr Hitler into belleving that it would be good propaganda for Germany.

Russia has been producing about

"I made the Germans pay for us to 27,000,000 tons of oil a year. In peace come home in a Junker aeroplane," she used more than nine-tenths of that | added Mrs. Tate, "and to send Prince herself, and her export surplus has von Bismarck to meet us at Croy- fallen since 1932 from 6,000,000 to don."

监

1,000,000 fons. With an army of mil- 'The rescued' woman was Frau Seger lions mobilised she will not need less. with her twenty-one-month-old child. Let us grant that production might be|They had been held as hostages for increased. But what of the distribu- Frau Seger's husband, formerly tion? The Soviet oil fields are at the Socialist member of the Reichstag, other extremity of Russia from the who had escaped from prison. German frontier, and their output The Nazis has told Frau Seger that cannot reach Germany by sen. To her husband wanted nothing more to provide means for the transport of do with her, and Mrs. Tate had to large quantities of oil from the Cau- convince her that this was not true. casus to the depots of the German When Frau Seger arrived at Croydon army and

air force would be the her husband was waiting with a work of years.

bunch of roses.

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