1941-07-04 — Page 23

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THE CHINA MAIL, JULY 4, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

TOKYO DILEMMA

Opportunism remains the keystone of Japan's policy. She will watch! and wait; she will act ac- cording to the dictates of what she interprets as her own self-interest, and ac- cording to the prospects of achieving her objective with the minimum amount of trouble. That

is a fair interpretation of the cryptic "statement of policy" which came from Mr. Matsuoka on Wednes-

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day and there is every probability that Germany will regard this attitude as ill return for the Nazi action in recognising the Nanking puppet regime and instructing Italy, Rumania and Spain to follow suit. Germany has already gambled heav- ily in attacking Russia and shutting off contact between Europe and the Eastern end of the Axis.

TOKYO

BREAKING FREE

Nazis' Transport

The gesture to Tokyo over Nanking was intend-| ed both as recompense and as an inducement to Japan to take parallel action in some form or other. In the result, life has merely been made much more difficult for some hundreds of Ger- mans; Nazi influence in Chungking which indi- rectly aided Japan in sow- ing the seeds of discord has been destroyed in one fell blow; Japan's second state is worse than her first, for the "peace group" has been robbed of a lean- ing-post; the conviction Japan that she thrust entirely upon her own resources has gained Miditerranean; impetus. Altogether, it Supply the needs (not locally would seem that Herrween two and three millions Ribbentrop's much-strung out from the Arctic Circle vaunted diplomatic to the Pyrenees; and

Furnish raw materials for the astuteness, has once industry and agriculture of the again over-reached itself, occupied territories so that they with the cooperation of Adolf the Pact-Pounder.

Tangle

Reports of chaotic conditions on tem

in

SPRINGBOARDS

man

who

received has always

the

the railways of Germany do not greatest attention since the Nazis assumed power in 1933. During surprise.

The task of the enemy-control- the first five years of Nazi rule led transport system may be sub-nearly 2,000 miles of Reich motor- ways were completed at a cost of divided as follows:

To supply German and Italian 3,000,000.000 marks (£150,000.- war industries with raw mater-000). In the same period the and German and Italian number of cominercial road vehi- populations with food;

cles in Germany increased by no less than 141 per cent.

ials

Fill the gap caused by the loss of Italy's imports by sea;

Transport

Germany 10

the

is foodstuffs. oil and other raw materials from south-east Europe which once reached her via the

served) of a German army

of

On the other hand the German railways have been relatively neglected. As long ago as the win-

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canal

with the Dortmund-Ems provided a link between the waterway systems of Eastern and Western Germany. The construc-¡ tion of the great elevator at Roth-) ensee, near Magdeburg, means) that vessels use this canal up to 1,000 tons deadweight, the equi- valent of 67 standard 15-ton] freight cars.

in

But on the waterways, the creasing demands upon transport facilities have led to a shortage, of barge space, a shortage in- creased by the necessity for re- placing the invasion barges which are repeatedly being bombed by the R.A.F. at Channel poris.

Plunder Of Freight Cars

Moreover, the demand for ter of 1937-1938 an official report

on the Danube! on the Reich railways spoke of a shipping shortage of 100,000 wagons, and to transport goods from since then the steady expansion south-east Europe which formerly reached Germany by sea has led to the transfer to the Danube of barges which former-f ly salled the Rhine.

By Peter Matthews

The frequent references in Air Ministry communiques to attacks) upon the Dortmund-Ems canal and upon the inland ports at Ber may make their contribution to of traffic and the difficulty of find-lin and Duisburg-Ruhrort, testify the German war effort.

ing steel for new It is a formidable programme,

construction to the great attention paid by have intensified the deficiency. the R.A.F. to Germany's inland sufficient to tax the resources of Moreover, the Austrian railway waterways. even an efficient transport sys-system, taken aver in the spring

tem.

forced.

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