EMPIRE’S IRON ORE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 255, 9 August 1937, Page 8

EMPIRE’S IRON ORE.

NEGLECT OF RESOURCES. BRITISH JOURNAL’S COMMENT LONDON, July 15. Neglect of the Empire’s resources in iron ore and reliance upon foreign supplies are condemned hv a leading London financial journal. While British steelworks suffer from a shortage Japanese producers have secured valuable ore supplies from Australia, Malaya- and New Zealand, says the “Financial News” and have gained virtual control of some ore districts. Germany, it adds, recently bought additional quantities of ore from Newfoundland. In view of the scarcity, and sometimes insecurity, of iron ore supplies from foreign countries,.the insignificant part played by Empire ores in British trade is surprising, the journal adds. There is little sign of the problem being attacked on methodical lines. Almost half of Britain’s pig iron is derived from foreign ores. Imports from Spain and Spanish Morocco declined from 31 per cent of the total imports in 1935 to 23 per cent in 1936. Recently, they have become still more restricted. The newspaper asserts that the advance of Japan in China and elsewheie in the Far East and the annexation of Abyssinia, are not altogether unconnected with the shortage of iron ore in Japan a.nd Italy.